ROCK HILL, NY — The Sullivan County Partnership on October 10 held its 25th annual meeting and celebration in Rock Hill. Sims and Kirsten Foster, the founders of Foster Supply Hospitality were honored with the Walter K. Rhulen Award.

The Fosters have become well known in Sullivan County for opening high-end restaurants, inns and other hospitality facilities, but the initiative that got the most attention in Sims’ remarks is called “A Single Bite.”

The aim of the program is to teach eighth-grade students in Livingston Manor School District the difference between processed food and unprocessed food. Sims said he was motivated to launch the program when he learned that Sullivan County is ranked 61 out of 62 counties in the state in terms of health outcomes. He was also motivated after an experience serving a salad to eighth graders who laughed at the meal.

“We bring a chef into the classroom and we make food… we have one rule, you have to take a single bite. If you dislike it, tell us later why you dislike it, articulate it, and that the words yucky and gross are not how you describe food,” he said. “You talk about salt and sweet and sour, texture, smell—how we eat with our eyes, first. We took them to harvest potatoes … we fed them trout beets, squash, venison, [all from] from local farms.”

The program, which is coordinated with a food and nutrition teacher and is in its fourth year, ends with the students taking a trip to New York City, for a meal with a celebrity chef.

Keynote speaker

The keynote speaker of the evening was Dan Paradiso, who grew up in Eldred, and is now director of sales for the Kartrite Resort and Indoor Waterpark. Paradiso said he grew up with an alcoholic father who commuted to work in Manhattan. He said he was a mediocre student at best, but applied himself. He met his wife, who changed his life, and worked his way up through different resorts. He then started commuting to New York City for work. “Growing up poor, in a broken home, in a small town” would not define him, he said.

“Why did I not move closer to New York City to shorten my commute in all of those years?” he asked. “Because I was proud to be in an area that has hearts bigger than the size of its population… There was an opportunity to raise our kids with local ideals and prosperity right in our own backyard. This is community that is a part of you, that stretches beyond a 25-year history. Truth in partnership is not hard to find in Sullivan County, it never has been. And based on the size of the audience in this room, you already know that.”

Most of the honorees and speakers of the evening were Sullivan County natives.