History
The Food Studies Institute (FSI) is a manifestation of the life-long passion for beautiful food held by Antonia Demas, FSI founder and president. As a young child, she remembers cutting her toast into the shapes of animals and hiding foil-wrapped trinkets inside the 'surprise cakes' that she baked. Antonia has fond memories of visiting her grandparents in New York City where they had a beautiful, organic garden, ate at a table under grape vines and had access to what are now trendy vegetables and herbs such as broccoli rabe and arugula. On becoming a vegetarian at age 14, during a time when societal support was lacking, Antonia was motivated to do extensive reading on food, nutrition and cooking. By the time she was a young mother, she began volunteering at a local Head Start center in Vermont. While she was very impressed with the general philosophy of Head Start, she was concerned about the nutritional value of the meals served to students. Antonia volunteered to help the Head Start cooks, children and parents to prepare healthier options. Almost immediately she observed that when children had a literal hand in preparing food, they would eat things that their parents swore they would hate. This observation has been consistent over Antonia's adulthood and is the reason she eventually pursued a Ph.D. at Cornell University.
Antonia Demas founded the Food Studies Institute to continue the work initiated in her award winning Ph.D. dissertation and provide the educational services and curriculum that were developed in her research to a much wider audience. FSI was officially recognized as a not-for-profit corporation in May 1999. Since that time, FSI has collaborated with diverse child-centered organizations in the U.S. and abroad; has introduced the curriculum, Food is Elementary, into hundreds of schools across the nation; has trained teachers as Food Educators; has implemented healthful change within school lunch programs; and has offered an extensive variety of consulting and research services.
Organization Overview
The Board of Directors and many devoted collaborators in professional fields are committed to furthering the work of the Food Studies Institute. As well as these supporters, the professional staff of FSI includes the founder and president, Dr. Antonia Demas; Luella Barlow, an intern from Scotland; and Renell Carpenter as webmaster. The curriculum, Food is Elementary (FIE) has been successfully implemented in more than 450 schools nation-wide, with strong interest from other countries. More than 350 people have been trained to become Food Educators which enables them to teach the curriculum and record the results. The work of FSI is research based and has consistently achieved very positive results. The products and services offered by FSI include curricular materials, a video and soon to be DVD, training programs which include research oversight, consulting, and public speaking. FSI collaborates with many other organizations in the business, educational and non-profit community. Our work is funded through grants and donations from the private and public sector. Contact with FSI can be made through the web site or by emailing or calling the main office in Trumansburg, NY.
Tax-exempt Status
The Food Studies Institute is recognized as tax-exempt public charity.
