ST. VINCENT MEALS ON WHEELS TAPS SOCIAL MEDIA GENERATION WITH LAUNCH OF FRUGAL FOODIE TIPS
VIDEO SERIES FEATURING TOP ANGELENO CHEFS
Mobile-Friendly Web Series Showcases Chefs’ Tips on Creating Recession-Proof, Gourmet Meals
Line-up Includes Evan Kleiman, Mark Gold, Suzanne Tracht, Onil Chibas, Richard Ruskell, Joe Miller, Sherry Yard, Ashley Reed, Mirko Paderno
With the money you’ll save, YOU can feed a senior!
St. Vincent Meals on Wheels (SVMOW), the country’s largest, privately funded organization feeding the homebound and hungry, is launching FRUGAL FOODIE TIPS, a mobile-friendly web series featuring nearly a dozen top Angeleno chefs sharing their professional tips on creating budget-minded, gourmet meals. The bi-weekly roll-out will debut each 1-2 minute video on YouTube and on the SVMOW website, with a social media team promoting the mobile-friendly series on a variety of social networking sites.
Among the in-demand Angeleno chefs featured in the series are Onil Chibas of Elements Catering, Mark Gold of Eva Restaurant, Ashley James of the Four Seasons Beverly Hills, Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW’s Good Food, Joe Miller of Joe’s Restaurant, Mirko Paderno of Oliverio at the Avalon Hotel, Suzanne Tracht of JAR, Richard Ruskell, winner of the Food Network’s Last Cake Standing, and Sherry Yard of Spago. A number of the chefs in the series have also lent their talents to Cart For A Cause, SVMOW’s mobile food truck and to Culinary Cause Dinners, a series of pop-up gourmet events around Los Angeles.
Aimed squarely at the social networking set in order to cultivate the next generation of SVMOW supporters, FRUGAL FOODIE TIPS represents a confluence of trends that reflect the times: a mobile-friendly format, content appealing to urban-dwelling foodies and budget-minded home cooks alike — as well as the embrace of philanthropy by millenials, a DIY generation that’s come of age in the era of cause marketing.
Savory offerings presented in the series range from Suzanne Tracht’s take on chopped steak, Onil Chibas’s way with pork tenderloin; desserts that feature sweet savings include Sherry Yard’s tips on making a show-stopping ice cream cake with (leftover) cookie crumb crust and Richard Ruskell’s citrus and award winning chocolate cake.
The production of FRUGAL FOODIE TIPS was underwritten in part by a Building The Future Vision Grant from the Walmart Foundation and Meals on Wheels Association of America (MOWAA). These grants encourage innovative Meals on Wheels models or significant operational improvements.
“Reaching out and developing a relationship with the next generation of SVMOW supporters and donors is critical for us, as we are faced with an ever-growing aging population, tough economic times with increased need for our services and rising operating costs for fuel and food,” notes Daryl Twerdahl, Executive Director, St. Vincent Meals on Wheels Foundation, adding that the MOWAA/Walmart Grant will greatly aid SVMOW’s efforts to execute strategies that appeal to younger donors.
Betsy Rosenfeld Vargas, who developed and co-produced the FRUGAL FOODIE TIPS series, further points out that in a landscape crowded with so many non-profit organizations vying for attention and support, Gen Y and millennial donors tend to pick those that both “represent their core values and offer a sense of fun and being associated with a cool cause.”