About Us

Mission

Our mission is to answer parents’ questions about food, and work with partners to create a world that nurtures healthy, thriving children. We create short online videos on everything from cooking and gardening to nutrition and behavior. We also highlight the best videos from other websites and invite you to submit your own.

Structure

Parent Earth Inc. and the Parent Earth Foundation are sister entities that share one mission, to answer parents’ questions about food and create a world that nurtures healthy, thriving children. We created this structure in order to give us the ability to serve communities and work on campaigns to improve the food system while at the same time creating a vibrant, profitable social venture that expands the sustainable goods market. We are concerned about the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit.

Parent Earth is a B Corp. What is a B Corporation?

We’re proud to be a Certified B Corporation.

When you support a Certified B Corporation, you’re supporting a better way to do business. Certified B Corporations meet rigorous, independent standards of social and environmental performance. We are creating greater economic opportunity, strengthening local communities, and preserving the environment.

B Corps. A better way to do business. Find out for yourself at www.bcorporation.net/parentearth

Perspective

Our videos reflect diverse opinions and perspectives because we know that there is never one parenting or food style that works for everyone. We hope you will enjoy what you find here and please share your feedback with us.

Values

We believe that all children have a right to healthy, safe, and affordable food, and that enjoying fresh food is one of the great pleasures of life. We are motivated by the idea that to truly take care of our children we must also take care of the world and vice-versa.

Parents are a powerful force for change. Together, we can create a sustainable food system, a system that connects us to the environment and climate, to human rights and healthcare. We are driven by the question: What legacy are we leaving our children?

Team

Nicole Betancourt

Photo by Lionel Closson

Nicole Betancourt, Founder and CEO, has 17 years experience in media production and distribution. She has won an Emmy for an HBO documentary, led a web-based media organization as Executive Director and is a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow and a Donella Meadows Fellow. Her work has been praised in the New York Times, USA Today, and Variety, by the Oprah Winfrey Show and at film festivals from Minsk to Taipei. Nicole is also a member of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP).

Sarah Schenck

Photo by Lionel Closson

Sarah Schenck, Co-Founder and COO, is an award-winning feature film producer and director with an M.A. in Political Economy from Stanford University. Currently a Hepburn Fellow (http://www.brynmawr.edu/hepburn/fellows/) at Bryn Mawr College, she served as the Senior Education Policy Advisor for the NYC Comptroller. She makes videos on the food supply for the Park Slope Food Coop.

Margaret Sclafani

Margaret Sclafani, Associate Producer and Cinematographer, has a BA in Anthropology and Film from Bryn Mawr College. She was post-production coordinator on the documentary film Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, which opened in theaters Summer 2009. She regularly works in the production and camera departments on many film projects in the New York City area. As a filmmaker, she has traveled in Kenya, France, Morocco and Ireland and has found food to be a common denominator in raising healthy kids to adulthood.

Paula Lee Poy

Paula Lee Poy has a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College in Geography and Statistics, and a pastry certificate from Seattle Culinary Academy. She has been teaching children’s cooking classes, from toddler to 4th grade, with her husband for the past 5 years. She has also done menu planning and cooking for a 6-week summer camp program. Paula loves to cook with and for children of all ages and she has 2 children of her own. Paula has also worked for many startups providing various administrative services. She loves helping to build companies from the ground up and being part of that excitement.

Yolanda Gonzalez

Yolanda Gonzalez has a B.A. in Spanish and Environmental Studies from SUNY Geneseo. Her interest in food sustainability and green living first started the summer before graduating when she was a WWOOF volunteer on an organic farm in Manchester, Vermont. From there she co-founded a Community Supported Market (CSM) Program on her campus, became an EBT Greenmarket Manager, and completed an 8-month Teaching Assistantship in Tarragona, Spain. Over the past year she has become heavily involved in the food scene on Long Island as an active member of Slow Food Huntington and the current Secretary for the NOFA- New York’s NYC/ Long Island Chapter. Her most recent experience as a Full-time Fieldworker at Crossroads Farm has reaffirmed her desire to become a farmer one day. Yolanda is excited to be working at Parent Earth and taking her career in outreach and advocacy to the next level.

Partners

Parent Earth is currently building a network of partner organizations and companies that share our mission and that are leaders in their fields.

The Eat Well Guide® is a free online directory for anyone in search of fresh, locally grown and sustainably produced food in the United States and Canada.

Healthy Monday is a movement of people and organizations who commit every Monday to the behaviors and actions that will end preventable disease in the USA, such as Meatless Mondays.

The Kids Cook Monday initiative encourages families to set aside the first day of every week to cook and eat together as a family. When kids pitch in making meals, they’re empowered to consider the portions, the vitamins and the nutrients of what they’re eating. The Kids Cook Monday provides examples of kid friendly recipes and video demonstrations along with nutrition and safety tips- making it easy for families to cook and eat together every Monday.

Non-Profit Partners

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.

One Tray is a national campaign to improve child nutrition by encouraging a more direct connection between local farms and federally subsidized nutrition programs like the school lunch program. One Tray focuses on the health of our children, the state of our food system, and providing every child the opportunity to succeed.