Women for Tulsa-Food is Medicine with Chef Andrew Gruel

Women for Tulsa is proud to present this free-public event featuring celebrity Chef Andrew Gruel. Our "Food is Medicine" event will connect attendees with local vendors and organizations focused on providing goods, services and products centered on maintaining a clean, healthy lifestyle. Chef Gruel will share easy to implement tips that will assist in making your journey into a clean lifestyle more sustainable. We will learn about what lead to the "food is medicine" legislation that was recently passed in the Oklahoma legislature and better understand how it will impact our schools and community.

Chef Andrew Gruel is helping lead the fight in California to ensure children are receiving nutritious meals while at school, utilizing locally sourced foods from local farmers. Through his advocacy and ingenuity, Chef Gruel helped out-of-work restaurant employees during the pandemic to receive much needed finacial resources and free meals, earning he and his wife, Lauren Gruel, the Pandemic Heroes Award by Restaurant Business Magazine. Most recently, during the LA wildfires, they turned one of their highly successful restaurants into a hub for first responderss and evacuees. They received massive truck loads of essential donation drop-offs, and in return, set-up delivery of truckloads of essential supplies for wildfire evacuees/victims, offered free meals and camping spaces for evacuees, as well as free meals and respite to firefighters and first responders.

• Founded Slapfish, launched from a food truck in 2011 and expanded into a 27-location sustainable seafood franchise by 2022, before selling it to Mak Haik Enterprises.
• Established the American Gravy Restaurant Group, comprising concepts such as Calico Fish House, Big Parm, Two Birds, Butterleaf, Lolo's Tacos and 101 Burger.
• Spearheaded Calico Fish House in Huntington Beach, featuring sustainably sourced seafood (e.g. Fair Trade Wild Blue Mexican Shrimp) aligning gastrononmy with environmental advocacy.

• Named among Orange County's Top 40 Under 40 in 2013.
• Recognized as one of Fast Casual's Top 25 Business Executives in 2016.
• Appeared on Nation's Resaurant News' Power List in 2017.
• Honored by Resaurant Business Magazine among their Pandemic Heroes, with wife Lauren, for pandemic-era support to restaurant industry workers.

• Directed Seafood for the Future at the Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach), collaborating with chefs and fisherman to promote sustainable seafood awareness nationwide.
• Highlighted sustainable sourcing, especially Fair Trade-certified shrimp, at Calico fish House-demonstrating commitment to ethical seafood practices.
• Known for supporting emerging food entrepreneurs through rotating restaurant incubator concepts, fostering innovation without large capital outlay.

In order to continue to bring exciting programs like our "Food is Medicine" event featuring celebrity Chef Andrew Greul, free-to-the-public, it requires the generouse support of our sponsors. We have several sponsorship levels avaliable, ensuring couples and corporations alike can afford to support this educational event. If you are interested in learning what benefits come with sponsoring our event, simply scan the sponsorship QR code above or contact Paula Abbott at [email protected]

Do you have a local business or organization that offers locally sourced foods or products? Maybe you offer services that assist people in shifting over or maintaining a clean, healthy lifestyle? What if you have the best local subscription service designed around the best Oklahoma grass-fed beef? Maybe you offer personalized culinary in-home services, bringing nutrient dense foods, chef prepared, that just need to be heated? As a collaborator at our "Food is Medicine" event, you help promote our free-public event on your website, social media and store-front, and in return, we will promote your business/organization at our event, on our social media, website and create a special QR code that will allow people to access your business info directly from our page. We even offer vendor tables on a first come, first served basis. Limited tables available. F. or more information contact Jenifer Stevens at [email protected].

Host or Publisher Women for Tulsa