A Little Bio About Myself, MacKenzie LeBeau.

The University of Richmond, my internship host school, asked me to provide them with a bio about myself and my interests so I will in return share it with all of you.

My name is MacKenzie, I am a junior at Syracuse University where I major in Nutrition and Dietetics as well as Public Health. I was born and raised in a small town in Vermont, which is where my love and passion for food began based on the high quality of food my parents produced in our garden, from small local farms, and the weekly farmers market. As a child I never realized how lucky I was to have fresh fruits and vegetables whenever I pleased. I have worked in the restaurant industry since I was 15 years old at a local French restaurant, Tourterelle, where my interest in classic and modern food system in America intertwine. I think in modern society with the development of “fast food” we need a way to return to our cultural roots and see the importance in harvesting our own food or by better supporting local agriculturalist that are growing our food. Rather than relying on imported foods of lesser quality because of the economic value, but relying on local food because of the added value to our health, by focusing on quality not quantity.

Last summer, I worked at a children’s camp where 90% of the students attending were on free or reduced lunch subsidizes. The head chef and I prepared close to 300 meals a day between breakfast and lunch. All of our food was from local sources as well as an onsite garden. This experience has been the most influential in my life so far. One day we had an excess of basil which we turned into pesto. The children thought we were trying to poison them with “green goo.” We bribed a few children to try the pesto by offering dessert, which was a banana muffin. We had a few brave souls and over time as we continued to reintroduce the pesto the number of kids trying it would increase. By the end of the summer they were asking when we would have pesto again. Many people could not believe it, these kids had never been introduced to fresh fruits and vegetables, but as they learned to trust us they began to expand their palette, which was really validating.

In my free time I enjoy hiking and running, attending sporting events, trying out new restaurants, attending farmers markets, cooking and traveling to new cities. Last summer I hiked 3 mountains, in 3 different states, in 3 days. I also enjoy the rush of taking risks and doing fun, but sometimes crazy things like going skydiving and cliff diving.