News and Events

March 16, 2012

ACCION and Oxfam celebrate International Women's Day and the GROW Food Justice Campaign on March 16

Featuring Keynote Speaker Danielle Hrzic, ACCION Client and President & Co-Founder of Gourmet Gorilla

Oxfam and ACCION celebrate International Women's Day and the GROW Food Justice Campaign with keynote speaker Danielle Hrzic, President & Co-Founder of Gourmet Gorilla

When: Friday, March 16th, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Heartland Cafe, 7000 North Glenwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60626 (next to the Howard CTA station)
What: Food, film, and speakers Danielle Hrzic, Gourmet Gorilla; Clara Herraro, Oxfam America; and Elizabeth Dwyer, ACCION Chicago
Cost: Free!
Start-ups, social enterprises, women entrepreneurs, and those in the food industry face unique challenges that ACCION Chicago works to solve through microfinance. Oxfam has launched the GROW campaign to build a better food system: one that sustainably feeds a growing population and empowers poor people to earn a living, feed their families, and thrive. How we can support environmentally-sound food markets right here in our own community? Come hear Gourmet Gorilla co-founder Danielle Hrzic discuss how her company got its start through microfinance and is working to strengthen the local organic food market, our environment, and children's health.

About the speakers:

Danielle Hrzic, President & Co-founder of Gourmet Gorilla
Gourmet Gorilla™ provides 90 Chicago schools with 4,500 healthy, local, organic meals and snacks daily. Founded in 2009, it expanded from one school to dozens thanks in part to support from the microfinance organization ACCION Chicago. Today Gourmet Gorilla obtains 100% of its produce from local, sustainable, and certified organic purveyors. Their kitchen is also working towards becoming a zero waste kitchen, with a composting program, recycling program, and delivery via environmentally responsible vehicles. Schools that switch to Gourmet Gorilla not only obtain better nutrition and safer food, but also help the local economy, promote food security, and encourage environmental responsibility. Co-founders Danielle Hrzic and Jason Weedon also created the educational curriculum that supports their lunches, teaching children how to eat healthier and how food choices affect the local environment and economy.

Elizabeth Dwyer, ACCION Chicago
As a national leader in microfinance, ACCION Chicago empowers aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners with access to capital and financial education. Since inception in 1994, ACCION Chicago has made more than 2,500 small business loans totaling over $19 million. More than 40% of ACCION entrepreneurs are women, and each loan creates or maintains an average 2.5 jobs. As Programs & Policy Associate, Elizabeth manages expanded programmatic initiatives and government relations. Prior to joining ACCION, Elizabeth worked in Sri Lanka, Brazil, Peru, and Kenya designing and implementing USAID-funded capacity building programs and microsavings initiatives with Catholic Relief Services and local community development organizations. She is also a long-term volunteer financial counselor and tax preparer with the Center for Economic Progress, helping Chicago's low-income families move toward financial security.

Clara Herraro, Oxfam America
Clara is a Community Engagement Specialist at Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Clara also supports the nationwide Oxfam Action Corps, volunteers who work locally to inform, inspire, and mobilize public support for policies to end hunger, poverty, and social injustice through grassroots action. In her spare time Clara enjoys learning new recipes for all the produce she gets from her local community sustainable agriculture share. Currently, she is collecting recipe suggestions on what you can do with kohlrabi.