— Melissa Bryant

So after I worked at that grocery store, uh, well as I was working there, I was helping to develop recipes for the restaurants and then continued on to develop, uh, plant-based recipes for, uh, whole Foods market as a company. And then, um, helped develop recipes for books and then I became a healthy eating specialist. So I helped the community basically, uh, look at food in a healthier way and whole food plant-based eating. And this was 20 years ago, so this was quite a long time ago. Uh, worked with, you know, the Essenes at Engine two and Dr. Furman and Dr. Gregor and, uh, Scott Stoll, kind of all these heavy hitters in the plant-based industry. Then, um, worked with them, uh, quite regularly to be able to help develop recipes and make healthy eating taste good, because that was something that was not, people thought of healthy eating and they thought of things that didn't taste good. So I really emphasized working on food that everybody liked, you know, so it was like you didn't realize you were eating health food. Um, I then took that, you know, in other directions. Um, you know, I worked in school food for a while developing plant-based, uh, you know, meals for schools and large mass to be able to help out with, uh, chef and foundation out of Boulder, Colorado. Um, I worked with Whole Kids Foundation specifically doing the, um, the school food and training teachers, uh, on best practices of nutrition. I've been on countless boards as well, so I've been, right now I'm on the, uh, reap Food Group board here in Madison, Wisconsin. I was on the board of Slow Food for eight years, uh, somewhere around there. Um, you know, a lot of different ways to be able to help, uh, with my plant-based culinary knowledge. Um, I've taught at countless culinary schools across the country as well, um, and done talks at different conferences, all kinds of different things, um, using my plant-based culinary knowledge, um, for, for income.