Meet Every Meal’s Program Team
Meet the incredible people at Every Meal dedicated to ensuring all aspects of our programs align with our values and achieve our mission of fighting child hunger. Members of our Program team play a key role in the effectiveness of our food gap programs. They work hand-in-hand and form relationships with school and community partners to not only implement our programs successfully but also ensure they thrive long-term. Their input helps shape program growth and expansion to best feed kids experiencing food insecurity. August and September is an especially busy time as the team prepares to kick off the Weekend Meal Program at about 375 schools across Minnesota this school year.
Get to know them by reading what they like most about their role and their favorite food tradition.
Anna Prescher:Program Manager |
What do you like most about your role? I love playing a role in supporting our community with nutritious, delicious, and relevant food. From ensuring there is dignity and choice for families (like offering five bag types and materials in various languages) to building spreadsheets at my computer, I enjoy seeing all the pieces come together. I believe that our best work is done in collaboration with others, and I am grateful to work with fabulously thoughtful colleagues, school partners, and volunteers.
What is your favorite food tradition? My favorite food tradition is adding sprinkles to everyday eating. This can take many forms, like a dash of colorful sprinkles atop a snack of banana slices and peanut butter. I dare you to try it and not smile!
Bethany Michiels:Program Coordinator |
What do you like most about your role? I love that the support we offer families becomes part of their typical routine. If they’ve got a kid in a school that partners with Every Meal and they opt in to receive food bags, that food is going to come home with their kid every week when school is in session. There are often barriers to receiving food assistance, and I love being part of a team all working together to get nutritious, delicious, and relevant food to kids in a way that makes so much sense for them and their families.
What is your favorite food tradition? In the part of Wisconsin I’m from, a stew called chicken booyah is made in a large kettle (20-70 gallons). My family makes it every year in October. Cousins, aunts, and uncles help chop all the veggies the day before it’s made. It’s cooked outdoors over a flame, stirred with a big paddle, and usually enjoyed with an ice cube because nobody can wait for it to cool down once it’s ready!
Courtney Leaon:Senior Program Coordinator |
What do you like most about your role? My favorite part is getting to be in service to my community. I am blessed to work with intelligent, passionate, and compassionate humans and that is just half of the fun. Getting to walk away daily knowing that I am working to make people’s lives better is what fuels me! I am in a unique situation to be able to work at an organization that provides support to individuals all around me. Through providing food support, I hope I am taking one item off of someone’s list of things to worry about, even for a weekend, and in turn, provide them with the fuel to focus on other things that are most important to their growth and success.
What is your favorite food tradition? My favorite food tradition is my Grandma making homemade biscuits and gravy. There were usually two types of gravy: southern-style sausage gravy and rich chocolate gravy. Chocolate gravy isn’t something most people have heard of before but believe me, you’ll wish you had!
Ici Kelley:Program Coordinator |
What do you like most about your role? Being able to help others has already been a big part of my life, usually through volunteering. Now being able to do that as a career and going into the community to provide a necessary resource to those in need is so rewarding! I am fortunate to be in this good work with others that share the drive to help and that is an amazing feeling!!
What is your favorite food tradition? Unfortunately I don’t really have food traditions. Maybe one day! But my new favorite food is anything my older sister throws on the grill. She has become quite the grill master!
Libby Schlatter:Program Manager |
What do you like most about your role? I love the people that I get to work with, both on my team at Every Meal and at the sites we partner with. I get to come to work every day knowing that we are all united in our purpose and passion of getting good food to kids, and we also have a lot of fun doing it together. It’s also a huge highlight any time I get to visit a school and connect with the staff who are making it possible to get food to kids in their school each week – they are the best! It really takes a village to do this work, and it’s a privilege to be a part of it.
What is your favorite food tradition? My favorite food tradition is that at Christmas time. Instead of making a big fancy meal, we just make a bunch of fun finger-food snacks to feast on. Some of my favorites are deviled eggs, ham and pickle roll-ups, and the fruit tray!
Lindsey Torkilsen:Vice President of Impact |
What do you like most about your role? Providing care and compassion to families in our state with a simple question – which bag color/type do you prefer? We aren’t collecting their private information. We are not judging them. We are not disappointed in their need or curious as to why. We are free. We just want to provide the families we serve with food, care, and compassion. We do that well and I think we are nourishing more than just stomachs!
What is your favorite food tradition? Every birthday my family makes a cake that when it is cut it looks like a watermelon cake. It is made out of lime sherbet, vanilla ice cream, and raspberry sherbet. No seeds in this watermelon!