Market at the Food Bank's 20th Anniversary

It's springtime. For most of us that means stashing our winter sweaters and boots, popping a few Zyrtecs and heading to the weekend farmers market. But for a sixth of Northeast Ohioans spring is a time of hunger.

Enter Harvest for Hunger, an annual program started by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank to combat food insecurity in Northeast and north central Ohio.

"Typically the Greater Cleveland Food Bank serves those in need in six Northeast Ohio counties: Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula, Ashland and Richland counties," says Kellie Biller, special events and CR manager at the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

The Harvest for Hunger campaign aims to nearly triple that reach by partnering with four area food banks, which then serve residents in 21 regional counties.

"It's a coordinated effort," Biller says. "We work with thousands of organizations who support the campaign, and it's actually one of the largest campaigns of its kind in the nation."

Yet the food banks can't do it alone. Which is why they've hosted the annual Market at the Food Bank fundraising event — the "Market" part of the name comes from the West Side Market, which originally hosted the fundraiser — every year for the past two decades. This year's event marks its 20th anniversary, and Biller says about 1,000 people are expected.

In addition to helping a worthy cause, guests will get to sample 50 of Greater Cleveland's top restaurants, breweries and food vendors including Bomba Tacos & Rum, Chinato, Edwin's Leadership and Restaurant, Geraci's, Jackie O's Brewery, Melt Bar and Grilled, Sans Souci, Sushi 86, Trentina and Urban Sweetness.

There will also be a silent auction with prizes including a tour of the Cargill salt mine, plus a raffle with offerings such as an Apple Watch and a shopping spree at Legacy Village.

For wine lovers, there will be a wine pull with 50 different bottles up for grabs.

"For every $1 that's donated, we can provide four nutritious meals to those in need," says Biller. "We have a lot of buying power, and the money that's donated to us goes very far." Last year's event raised $183,000; this year the food bank hopes to pull in $220,0000.

That's the equivalent of 880,000 meals.

Market at the Food Bank is this Sunday, May 3. General admission ($100) entrance is at 6 p.m., and VIP ($175, includes VIP lounge access) doors open at 5 p.m. Purchase tickets here or at the door.

Russo Brothers' Sister to Launch New Education Nonprofit

The Russo Brothers are coming back to Cleveland. Don’t worry, West Side commuters, it’s not to close down any streets. It’s to host a fundraiser for their youngest sister Angela Russo-Otstot’s new nonprofit preschool and support center, The New Foundation for Children, which uses a fresh curriculum based on the latest research in early childhood education.

Angela Russo-Otstot

“For all the great things about Cleveland ... one of our most challenging areas has always been education, especially urban education,” Anthony Russo says. “To find new and innovative ways to better our schooling experience, that’s a really noble way to spend your time and energy.”

On Nov. 22 at Michaelangelo's in Little Italy, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., Russo-Otstot will present her vision and help raise money for to develop a preschool curriculum that requires parental involvement and can be open-sourced to classrooms across the region. New Foundation plans to open a support center for parents and teachers in spring 2015 and its first school in fall 2015. We asked Russo-Otstot to teach us what the nonprofit is all about.

Q. Why did you get involved?

A. Like many parents, I started out being concerned about where my son was developmentally. Is he going to be able to read by kindergarten? Soon, it became apparent the things I was truly concerned with were character-based. I wanted my son to be motivated, to develop a deeper understanding of other people’s feelings and to communicate his feelings better. An assistant to a teacher at my son’s Montessori school had this wonderful idea to start this new school and form a curriculum that focused on building up characteristics, such as perseverance, independence, understanding of others.

Q. How is this different from other high-quality preschools?

A. This type of early childhood education is very expensive to implement. We believe we have a more cost-effective, sustainable solution. And we will use all of our profits to basically gift this cost-effective curriculum to schools throughout Cleveland. We will give them the materials and train their teachers on our methodology and provide them with continued education. The more support centers we open, the more classrooms we can gift. We want to make this curriculum accessible to everyone.

Q. What does your curriculum aim to achieve?

A. Children develop 90 percent of their brain by the age of 5. This period is very critical for setting the stage for the rest of their life. We hope to equip them with the tools they need to face any sort of challenges that life throws at them, whether it’s economic or personal. A child who doesn’t have those tools mastered may not be able to thrive in certain situations. And we want to equip the parents with the tools to help their children throughout their life.

If you're interested in attending, call 216-30-CHILD for more info.