Oldways Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who makes up Oldways?
K. Dun Gifford is the founder and president of Oldways. Gifford founded Oldways in 1988 in Boston to promote healthy eating, encourage sustainable food choices, and preserve traditional foodways and Executive Vice President Sara Baer-Sinnott joined Oldways in 1992. Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies Cynthia Harriman, Director of Finance Birthe Creutz, Project Manager Sara Talcott, LNC Program Manager Kezia Freyjo, Mediterranean Foods Alliance Program Manager Nicki Heverling, Whole Grains Program Manager Kara Berrini, and Program and Media Assistant Erica Calegari make up the remainder of the team.

2. What is Dun Gifford's background?
Gifford grew up and has lived a life immersed in good food and wine, political activism, environmental campaigns, strong traditions, and nutrition awareness. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and served in the US Navy. He was legislative assistant to Senator Edward F. Kennedy and a national campaign coordinator for Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He has been an officer of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, chairman of Common Cause/Massachusetts, national chair of the American Institute of Wine & Food, and chairman of Nantucket Electric Company. He has owned and managed a number of restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, and founded a food business (Kilvert & Forbes) with US Senator John Kerry.

3. How did the idea of Oldways originate?
The idea for Oldways came about during Gifford's 1987 visits to China and Italy where traditional food patterns were still very much alive and expressed a vibrant harmony among earth, body and spirit. Gifford's vision for Oldways was an organization that would look backwards for the harmonious balances of good nutrition, pleasurable traditional foods, and respect for the earth that could help modern humans live healthier, happier, and longer lives, today and in the future.

4. What is the main goal of Oldways?
The goal of Oldways is to research and promote harmonious traditional food patterns, sustainable agriculture, and healthy eating and drinking. Gifford's involvement with food and beverage, the environment, health, organics, agriculture, and nutrition made him want to change the current debate and challenge conventional wisdom regarding food and nutrition. Gifford created Oldways to promote discussions, forge relationships, and bring forth more unified messages about these key subjects. Oldways widely promotes the values of traditional foodways in the context of the 21st century, and wants to prove that time-honored healthy eating patterns, and their familiar, delicious tastes, can serve as a countervailing force to the unhealthy, junk, and fast food that challenge our bodies, lifestyles, and world.

5. How does Oldways differ from other companies?
Oldways is quite different from most organizations and non-profits on a number of levels. First, we are an educational organization as well as an advocacy organization. We take a common-sense approach to changing people's lives. We translate information so that the consumer can make easier, better-informed decisions regarding food, and we do this by forging positive and unique alliances with media, corporations and educational institutions that might not proactively or effectively approach consumers.

We bring together people from all aspects of an issue, harnessing the strengths and positive elements of the various components to develop effective messages for consumers. We also don't focus on just one topic or one element within a given subject area. Oldways isn't JUST about food and gastronomy or JUST about nutrition. We focus on the pleasures and the joys of food, as well as its scientific and nutritional elements, plus the environmental factors that are at play in producing and cultivating various food products. In addition to this, Oldways is always focused on more than one issue and topic. As an example of this diversity, in the spring of 2006, we hosted a conference on the health benefits of coffee as part of the traditional Mediterranean Diet, we were creating a plan to consider the artisan and culturally unique foods and wines of particular Italian regions, developing a European Union scientific conference regarding Managing Sweetness, and continuing our work with the Whole Grains Council and Latino Nutrition Coalition.

We are a small organization. Despite our international presence and reputation, we have maintained a small, intimate headquarter in Boston. With an altruistic non-profit mission at heart and a close-knit group of motivated professionals, we have a collaborative yet ambitious culture that fosters true passion for the topic. Everyone here has as a willingness to take on new projects and an eager acceptance of new information and knowledge on the food issues facing people today. We love what we do!

6. What exactly does Oldways DO?
Oldways brings pressing issues to the forefront of public debates and instigates positive changes in the way Americans perceive and understand food, health and nutrition. Oldways does this by networking various opinion influencers (media, scientists, industry) on particular food topics. Oldways hosts conferences and symposia all over the world on a variety of food and drink issues. These events, lasting from a few hours over a meal in a renowned restaurant to a few days or a full week at an international destination, gather the best and the brightest in the science, industry, and communication fields on particular topics. Participants in these Oldways programs discuss, debate and elucidate their experience for the attendees. The audience normally includes government representatives, purchasers, product developers and other decision makers and influencers who distribute this knowledge through various channels, be it clients, customers, constituents, or media.

7. How are different Oldways projects and educational programs initiated?
Given the enormity of the diet-related public health challenges confronting the world today, there is no limit to the need for EFFECTIVE public education campaigns to encourage positive changes in consumption behaviors. Oldways is based in part on the concept that traditional foods and drinks and the related patterns in which they are consumed are the keys to reducing rates of the major killer chronic diseases (heart, cancer, and diabetes). Human genes change very slowly and the emergence of artificial techno-foods in the last half-century is overwhelming the human body's disease-protection mechanisms. Oldways programs have, in these circumstances, high likelihood of making positive, population-wide changes.

8. How is Oldways funded?
Oldways is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Its funding comes from a broad range of sources: contributions; foreign countries, regions, provinces, chambers of commerce; trade associations; private and public companies; individual and corporate memberships; licensing; conference sponsorships and registrations; and educational publications and products.

9. Who are some of Oldways' recent sponsors?
Oldways is financially supported through a broad range of a broad range of sponsorships, memberships, licensing, and projects with associations, governments, private and public companies and individuals.

Recent support has come from the following organizations:
Agenzia per L'innovazione e l'Inernationalizziazione delle Impresse SCARL (AINT); Ajinomoto Food Ingredients; Almond Board of California; Archer Daniels Midland Company, Barbara's Bakery; Barilla America, Inc., Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness; Bob's Red Mill; British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association; Buonitalia; Bush's Beans; California Avocado Commission; California Walnut Commission/Board; ConAgra; Consorzio per la Tutela Dell’Olio Extravergine di OlivaTerre di Siena DOP; CoRFiLac; Conzorzio Produttori e Tutela DOP Fontina; Del Monte; Dunkin' Donuts; ERSAC (Agricultural Products of Campania); Events South Australia/South Australia Tourism Commission; FEDERLOMBARDA; Filippo Berio; Florida Department of Citrus; Florida Tomato Growers Exchange; Food Match; Frito-Lay; General Mills; Great Harvest Bread; International Pasta Organization; Italian Trade Commission; Harvest Time Bread; Istituto Regionale Dell'olivo e Dell'olio, King Arthur Flour; Kraft Foods; LeSaffre Yeast; Mars Foods US; Mission Foods; National Grain Sorghum Producers; National Starch & Chemical Company; Nature's Path; NOAA/NMFS; Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission; Panera Bread; Pulse Canada; Regione Puglia; Regione Sicilia; Retecamere; Roman Meal Company; Rubschlager Baking Corporation; Rudi's Organic Bakery; San Domenico; Sanfilippo & Sons; Snyder's of Hanover; South Australia Premier's Office/South Australia Tourism Commission; Sunnyland Mills; The Coca-Cola Company; The Hain Celestial Group; The Peanut Institute; The Quaker Oats Company; The Schwan Food Company; Unilever; Unioncamere Puglia; Unione Industriali Pastai Italiani (UNIPI); United States Potato Board; USA Rice Federation; US Mills; and Whole Foods Market.

In addition, there are three educational initiatives of Oldways supported by membership:

The Whole Grains Council has more than 200 members. View member list here.

The Latino Nutrition Coalition currently has 18 members. View member list here.

The Mediterranean Foods Alliance currently has 16 members. View member list here.

10. What is the relationship between Oldways, the Whole Grains Council, the Latino Nutrition Coalition, and the Mediterranean Foods Alliance?
Oldways is the parent organization of three consumer education and industry supported non-profit associations: the Whole Grains Council (WGC), the Latino Nutrition Coalition (LNC), and the Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA).

All three programs are Oldways educational initiatives. Oldways founded all three associations, manages their day-to-day operations, educational outreach and promotion, events, and program development.