Michelle Dennis-Mitchell
artist educator & real food advocate
Drawing on 20 years’ experience as a writer and educator working to promote positive social change through grassroots, national and international organizations, Michelle combines her passion for the culinary, healing and expressive arts with personal stories of her own health victories to inspire and empower youth to eat their way to wellness.
An Urban Bush Women Leadership Institute alumnus, Michelle is trained in art-based community engagement with a specialized focus on the role that food and culture play in creating healthy sustainable communities. She has also completed Anima Leadership’s authentic group facilitation training program and incorporates anti-racist, social and emotional intelligence perspectives into her work.
How did you become a real food advocate?
In 2008, I lost my beloved mother to stroke-related dementia and I had a hysterectomy to remove
my fibroid-riddled womb. This personal low point set me on a path to find true healing.
Today I am the grateful survivor of my very own personal health nightmare. Learning to embrace a whole foods plant based diet as the natural daily medicine our creator intended for our bodies and removing a slew of harmful fraudulent foods from my life, has been the catalyst for a holistic healing transformation!
Friends and family raved about the beauty and flavor of the real food dishes I prepared and shared with them, and remarked on the physical changes in myself and my husband Dean (20-30lb weight loss and clear, glowing skin...)
I started doing a little personal chef work for a dear friend. She enjoyed the smoothies and whole food-based dishes I made and brought them to her workplace, a youth service agency, where she would hand out samples to her colleagues and the youth at lunch time. Next thing I knew, I had more clients and an invitation to meet to discuss how I could support healthier food options for youth and staff at the agency.
Instead of catering food for the centre, I developed a workshop to share the life-changing natural health information I had compiled about the power of whole food plant-based diet in preventing and reversing disease.
My mission is to help people of all ages to understand the link between food and wellness, to know the difference between real food and fake food, and provide practical resources on how to prepare low-cost nutrient rich food for themselves and their loved ones.
An Urban Bush Women Leadership Institute alumnus, Michelle is trained in art-based community engagement with a specialized focus on the role that food and culture play in creating healthy sustainable communities. She has also completed Anima Leadership’s authentic group facilitation training program and incorporates anti-racist, social and emotional intelligence perspectives into her work.
How did you become a real food advocate?
In 2008, I lost my beloved mother to stroke-related dementia and I had a hysterectomy to remove
my fibroid-riddled womb. This personal low point set me on a path to find true healing.
Today I am the grateful survivor of my very own personal health nightmare. Learning to embrace a whole foods plant based diet as the natural daily medicine our creator intended for our bodies and removing a slew of harmful fraudulent foods from my life, has been the catalyst for a holistic healing transformation!
Friends and family raved about the beauty and flavor of the real food dishes I prepared and shared with them, and remarked on the physical changes in myself and my husband Dean (20-30lb weight loss and clear, glowing skin...)
I started doing a little personal chef work for a dear friend. She enjoyed the smoothies and whole food-based dishes I made and brought them to her workplace, a youth service agency, where she would hand out samples to her colleagues and the youth at lunch time. Next thing I knew, I had more clients and an invitation to meet to discuss how I could support healthier food options for youth and staff at the agency.
Instead of catering food for the centre, I developed a workshop to share the life-changing natural health information I had compiled about the power of whole food plant-based diet in preventing and reversing disease.
My mission is to help people of all ages to understand the link between food and wellness, to know the difference between real food and fake food, and provide practical resources on how to prepare low-cost nutrient rich food for themselves and their loved ones.