Rooted Santa Barbara, a relatively new and very important organization focused on plant-based nutrition education, hosted its second annual Plantsgiving event on January 21. The nonprofit, which has attracted prominent advocates and partnered with key community organizations, is playing a crucial role in improving health by providing free and low-cost bilingual education and tools for individuals and organizations.
The focus, according to Chair and Executive Lead Beth Skidmore, is on serving community members with the greatest barriers to good health. In this early phase, it is working principally through healthcare workers and other direct service providers who support them — training the trainers — who each have their own broad reach in the community. Rooted's team includes community health workers, nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, physicians, college students and professors.
About 60 supporters gathered at the Foodbank of SB County’s Nutrition Resource Center to enjoy the Plantsgiving reception and dinner and learn more about Rooted. J.D. Roth, the creator of the TV shows The Biggest Loser, MasterChef, and Extreme Weight Loss, shared insight on the challenges confronting plant-based diet advocates. Television shows are filler around commercials, not the other way around, according to Roth, and the commercials are about getting viewers to consume their food and beverages. He recounted battling the head of the network on The Biggest Loser, a show about eating better and moving more, when the network, in search of sponsorship dollars, wanted to re-name the scale the Coca Cola Scale.