Tis the season for accolades for Bread for the City’s dedicated and hardworking staff! Following on the heels of executive director George Jones’ two awards this past month, we are pleased to announce that our own nutrition consultant, Sharon Feuer Gruber, has received the DC Primary Care Association’s Unsung Hero Award.

So what makes Sharon an Unsung Hero? Please, allow us to fill you in. We insist.

In 2008 we received a random call from a nutritionist, and we can honestly say that that first contact with Sharon has changed our organization in a BIG way.

While initially hired to provide nutrition counseling to patients and advise about improving the nutritional quality of our food offerings, within months, Sharon and our then-Food Director Ted Pringle had completely reshaped our purchase model. We shifted from offering mac ‘n cheese to distributing lean meats and lower-salt options. (Here’s a classic video of the two of them discussing changes to our Holiday Helpings menu.)

Not stopping there, Sharon took it upon herself to develop a new program from scratch. Her cold calls to area farmers led to the launch of Glean for the City, which has since collected and distributed over 122,000 lbs. of surplus free produce to our clients, ensuring the inclusion of fresh produce in every bag. (Sharon’s work with Glean for the City was recently featured on the Kojo Nnamdi Show!)

But wait, there’s more! Sharon also teaches monthly healthy cooking classes at both our NW and SE locations, and has recently started providing healthy food samples and recipes in the food pantry itself. So when we’re distributing sweet potatoes, we might also serve a simple sweet potato salad that day, giving clients the recipe and inspiring them to try making a new dish at home.

Along with our rooftop garden coordinator, Sharon has organized the now-monthly free farmers markets in our parking lots and has created a nutrition education curriculum to make the most of the school field trips we host on our new rooftop garden.

And most recently, she helped broker a partnership with UDC to develop our very own orchard. (Yes, you read that right. No links for it yet — but stay tuned!)

Sharon still provides nutrition counseling to medical patients, and her efforts mean that nutrition has become a cornerstone of our medical clinic and food program activities. And, of course, Sharon is just one of many “unsung heroes” at Bread for the City. But if not for her, things might be that much less delicious and nutritious around here.