Barbara Storper

Thank you so much, and I love Breeze Airlines, I've got to say.

My name is Barbara Storper, and I'm a nutritionist, and I'm the founder of Food Play Productions, and we're a national touring nutrition education theater company.

We bring live theater shows featuring juggling music, theater, audience participation to schools and communities around the country to turn kids on to healthy habits.

And we're based in Western Mass and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Yes, I'm a nutritionist, and I'm really concerned about kids eating and exercise habits.

As you know, the leading causes of death and disease in this world today are diet-related, and kids are just doing really badly.

And it was like 45 years ago when I was getting my master's in nutrition at Columbia University Teachers College, and I was asked to give a lecture at an inner-city school on nutrition.

And I was like, a lecture to 400 kids on nutrition?

I don't think so.

So I was a juggler at the time and really loved theater.

And I had been a journalist and I was horrified by all the ads promoting junk food to kids.

And I thought, what could be as powerful as these ads and the marketing by the food industry?

And I realized that theater is as powerful and really fun.

And so that's what we did.

And we started doing shows in 1982.

And it's been a long time.

It's a for-profit, yeah.

Yeah, it's been really hard.

I mean, we probably should have been a nonprofit years and years ago, but I just have been on the boards of nonprofits, and I just really like being an entrepreneur, and I hate the bureaucracy.

So I never did that, but we are a project.