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WHO WE ARE Meet the Staff Patrick Martins Patrick Martins was born in New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital on February 10th, 1972 and has lived in the city ever since. Patrick went to grade school at Browning, graduated from Vassar College in 1994 with a major in Psychology, and went on to receive a Masters' Degree in Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Patrick's thesis at NYU was titled "Subtleties and Entremets in England and France between 1300 and 1500" and dealt with the politics of food sculptures in medieval Europe. Needless to say, his job prospects were slim, so he jumped at the invitation of Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini to move to Italy to begin work to launch a Slow Food movement in the United States. When Patrick began his work in August of 1998, Slow Food USA had 212 members and 5 chapters. In March of 2000, Patrick moved back home with his wife Serena to open a Slow Food USA national office. Patrick is the founder of the Slow Food USA magazine, the Snail, is the author of the Slow Food Guide to New York Restaurants, Bars and Markets, and is series editor for the Slow Food Chicago and Northern California Guides. Today, Slow Food USA has over 12,500 members and 140 convivia (chapters) and has appeared in articles throughout the country. Patrick currently sits on the Slow Food USA Advisory Board with the title of Founder of Slow Food USA. In 2001, Patrick co-founded Heritage Foods with Todd Wickstrom, a business dedicated to helping farmers market their artisan foods and providing an alternative to industrial agriculture. Through Heritage Foods, a national mail order campaign was organized to save four breeds of endangered turkeys. The Heritage Turkey Project helped double the population of each breed and brought the number of small family farms that raise them from eight to eighty. In 2003, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy upgraded the Bourbon Red Turkey from Rare to Watch status on its conservation list. Heritage Foods donated all of its profits to Slow Food USA in 2002 and 2003. Patrick writes frequently and has published two Op-Ed pieces for the New York Times. Patrick is also the creator of the New York City Trivia Game, which hit stores in Thanksgiving 2003. A portion of the proceeds from each game sold goes to support the New York Restoration project founded by Bette Midler. Sarah Obraitis Sarah Wells Obraitis was born and raised in Queens, New York. Early visits to family farms in Latin America instilled in her an appreciation of and passion for sustainable agriculture, rural workers and stewards of the land. Sarah received a Bachelor of Science in international development and agriculture economics at the University of Vermont. In 1998, she spent a year working for the Ministry of Agriculture in Belize and worked independently with a Guatemalan refugee community in the north. Sarah also spent long hours on her uncle’s rose plantations in Cayambe, Ecuador, learning how to produce flowers for export in an eco-friendly manner. She also stayed at a dairy farm in Lurin, Peru growing corn hydroponically and working the gardens. Back in the States, in an effort to help city kids get better classroom resources, she helped organize in Central Park, NYC one of the largest tag sales in history. From 1999-2005, Sarah was at the Rainforest Alliance, an international conservation group, developing markets for sustainable tropical commodities Sarah joined the Heritage Foods team in the summer of 2005. She is currently now the Head of Business Development. Todd Wickstrom After getting accepted to Medical School Todd elected to buy a Chinese Restaurant instead of becoming a doctor. He has been in the food business ever since. He has also owned a Jazz Club and spent many years in the BBQ business opening up restaurants in the Southwestern United States. His most recent entrepreneurial venture was as an owner of two bread bakery franchises in Chicago. It was his desire to improve his operations at those bakeries that led him to a Zingerman's Experience Seminar in September of 2000. He was so changed by the experience that he eventually sold the two bakeries and moved to Ann Arbor to become the Managing Partner of Zingerman's Deli. As Todd enthusiastically embraced the Zingerman's Guiding Principle to be "an active part of the community", he began discussions with Gary Court, Principal of the Tappan Middle School to share a vision he had to bring an "Edible Schoolyard" to Ann Arbor. Those initial discussions have led to not only strong school and community support of the project, but to receiving a grant from the Kellogg Foundation for the strategic planning phase of the project. The goal of The Agrarian Adventure is NOT to create a school garden, but rather to change the world, at least one small portion of it. Also to create a fully integrated program that teaches the students to protect, promote and celebrate life and ultimately to take over the school lunch program by having the students preparing lunch for each other with food that they have grown and raised and subsequently to get credit for school lunch, in the same manner that they do for math, science or foreign language. Todd founded Heritage Foods with Patrick Martins in 2001, a business dedicated to helping farmers market their artisan foods and providing an alternative to industrial agriculture. Todd is the founder of the Slow Food chapter in Ann Arbor. He is also one of only three members of the Slow Food International Board of Guarantors. He has been married, to Kristen, for over 13 years and is the father of 4 boys, Nick, Alex, Nathan & Jakob. Heather Hyman Heather Hyman grew up on Long Island, New York. She started working at family-operated restaurants since she was almost legally allowed to. |
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A Brief Overview
