About The Initiative and My Mission in Life

My reason to get out of bed every day is to make a difference.

My mother raised us with the mantra: “If you’re not serving someone or something somehow today, don’t bother going out of the house.” She embedded the idea of making a difference in my DNA.

I confess that it took being diagnosed with terminal cancer for me to discover my mission. Once I had regained my wellness with food, I knew that I had found the purpose of my life: to help guide others to wellness and robust vitality by helping them understand the impact of food on their health.

I started with cooking classes in my kitchen and continued to teach anywhere people would host me, all over the world.

The question was: how could I reach more and more people?

My husband answered that question in 1994 when he had the brilliant idea that I should use the platform of public television to reach millions. I was skeptical, to be honest. Not only was I unsure of my ability to translate what I did in the kitchen to a television show, but I wondered if what I had to say would resonate with mainstream America, not just vegans, vegetarians and health enthusiasts.

That question was answered for us right out of the gate as the show quickly gained national attention, and our website exploded with upwards of 60,000 visitors weekly, along with thousands of questions from people about cooking and various health conditions.

As a cancer survivor, I felt their need. I quickly realized that my television show was the biggest classroom in the world.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that because of my high standards when it comes to the quality of food, my sponsor lists are limited to those companies that are driven by integrity, sustainability, making a lighter tread on our fragile planet and that make food that promotes wellness.

While it’s not the job of a corporation to worry about your health, I like to associate with companies who think about their customers’ health and the future we are leaving to our kids and their kids and their kids.

See the problem here?

As many of you noticed (and commented), we took a 6-year hiatus from public television, from 2013 to 2019. I wrote another cookbook, Back To The Cutting Board, worked on building our travel business and worked to find people who could help us move our mission forward.

We have just produced 13 new episodes of ‘Christina Cooks… Back To The Cutting Board’ that begin airing nationally on public television and Create TV in January 2020, with the support and love from friends in the natural foods business and private donors.

So I am here to ask you to help us do just that.

Your tax-deductible donation will go toward the production of the next series and will go a long way toward keeping us on the air continuously.

If you’re smart…and I know you are, you’re probably asking yourself why I don’t simply put my shows up on another platform. Lord knows there are so many ways to communicate your message, right? From Hulu to You Tube I see new platforms pop up each day. I see “influencers” pop up on social media as often, garnering thousands of followers to whatever it is they are doing, whether of social value or not. Don’t get me wrong, I use social media as part of getting my message out there, but I choose to stay on national public television for so many reasons I could go on for days. Simply put, I love sharing the airwaves with people who have changed the way we cook and how we see the world, from Julia Child to Jacques Papin; Rick Steves to Marrtin Yan and Martha Stewart to Downton Abbey; Sesame Street to Mr. Rogers (who testified in front of Congress about the importance of untouched-by-sponsorship educational programming). I love programming dedicated to broadening our horizons, making us better people, lifting our spirits and opening our minds to new ideas and thinking.

I want to be part of a network that allows me the freedom to speak my mind, without bowing to advertiser money, keeping education at the fore. Like I said, this has become my biggest classroom.Doing Christina Cooks is my way of honoring my mother’s legacy of service. It’s my way of expanding the reach of my message of wellness. National Public Television is my home, my platform, my way to teach as many people as possible, from all walks of life and socio-economic situations. And I am free from the influence of advertising.