A fun and engaging fitness and nutrition program

Background

 

Let’s Move! Brooklyn (LM!B) is a fitness and nutrition anti-obesity campaign inspired by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative. The initiative’s convening organizations (Catalyst Cares and Restoration Corporation) are working together to erase the food desert status and decrease the obesity rate in Central Brooklyn by 3 percentage points in 3 years.

 

Through a series of culturally sensitive and age-appropriate programs sponsored by our coalition of community stakeholders, LM!B will educate and inspire parents and children to make healthier dietary, fitness and lifestyle choices.  All LM!B events will be coordinated by the Get Fit, Get Healthy program, a collaboration with local health and community-based organizations dedicated to reducing the community-wide obesity rate in Brooklyn.

 


Our Advisory Committee


Lockie Andrews is the founder of Catalyst Cares, a non-profit promoting social mobility by improving health outcomes (obesity and diabetes) in underserved New York City communities, especially among vulnerable youth and their families.  Working alongside key community stakeholders in low-income communities, Ms. Andrews launched two programs, the Healthy Retail Task Force and Let’s Move! Brooklyn.  In tandem, the programs work to improve access to affordable and fresh foods, while stimulating demand for nutritious foods among residents.  In just under 18 months, the multi-disciplinary collaborative team has identified four potential full-scale supermarkets in the food desert communities.  The team is currently working with grocery store operators and the NYC government to finalize the projects, which would eliminate the food desert status for these communities.  Prior to launching Catalyst Cares, Andrews founded Catalyst Consulting, a management consulting firm to retail, apparel and fashion firms.  Andrews was also the Chief Operating Officer of Tadashi; the Director of New Business Initiatives at Liz Claiborne; VP of Business and Strategic Planning at babystyle; and an Investment Banking Financial Analyst on Wall Street. Andrews holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS with Honors from Georgetown University. A proponent of healthy and active living, Andrews is an avid yoga student, runner, spinner and enjoys pilates and other mind/body strength training activities.


 

Susan Taylor 

Ms. Taylor is the Founder and CEO of National CARES Mentoring Movement and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Essence Magazine. Taylor started her career at Essence, a magazine for African-American women, in 1970, the year the magazine was founded. By 1981, Taylor had risen to become editor-in-chief, a position she held until 2000. In addition to her editing responsibilities, Taylor had success building the Essence brand. She was executive producer and host of Essence, the Television Program, a syndicated interview program broadcast on more than 50 stations for four years during the 1980s. A legend in the magazine publishing world, her focus and passion today is the National CARES Mentoring Movement, a call to action, which she founded in 2005 as Essence CARES. The CARES mentoring movement is a fast-growing coalition of some of the nation’s most trusted organizations, concerned Black Americans and caring supporters.


 

Colvin Grannum 

Mr. Grannum has served as president of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation since March 2001. Restoration, the nation’s first community development corporation, was founded by community leaders and U.S. Senators Robert Kennedy and Jacob Javits in 1967. Before embarking on his career in community development, Grannum practiced law for over 17 years in the public and private sectors. Grannum earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Grannum serves on numerous boards, advisory committees and commissions dedicated to improving the quality of life for the residents of Central Brooklyn, in particular, and the borough of Brooklyn at large.


 

Adrian Grenier 

Mr. Grenier is an actor, filmmaker, and musician well known for his role on HBO’s Entourage. His film credits include: The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Drive Me Crazy, Cecil B. DeMented, Adventures of Power, and the Woody Allen films Celebrity and Anything Else. Grenier has directed numerous short films and documentaries including Shot in the Dark, which chronicles his years-long search for his father and Teenage Paparazzo, which explores the relationship between celebrity and society. In 2009 Grenier co-founded SHFT, a multi-media platform that conveys a more sustainable approach to the way we live through video, design, art and culture. Grenier is also a musician, playing guitar, drums, French horn, and the piano. He is a member of the New York band, The Honey Brothers.



Al Smith IV

Mr. Smith served as Chairman of the Board of Saint Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center. In December 2006, after 35 years on Wall Street, he retired from his position as Managing Director of Bear Wagner Specialists LLC, a specialist and member firm of the New York Stock Exchange. Smith is a Senior Advisor for the Marwood Group, and also sits on the Boards of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and Mutual of America. Smith is the great-grandson of the late, legendary Al Smith, Governor of New York, and serves as the Director, Secretary, and Dinner Chairman for the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, as well as Master of Ceremonies at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.


Our Management Team


 

Lockie Andrews, Managing Director 

 

Ms. Andrews is the founder of Catalyst Cares, a non-profit promoting social mobility by improving health outcomes (obesity and diabetes) in underserved New York City communities, especially among vulnerable youth and their families.  Working alongside key community stakeholders in low-income communities, Ms. Andrews launched two programs, the Healthy Retail Task Force and Let’s Move! Brooklyn.  In tandem, the programs work to improve access to affordable and fresh foods, while stimulating demand for nutritious foods among residents.  In just under 18 months, the multi-disciplinary collaborative team has identified four potential full-scale supermarkets in the food desert communities.  The team is currently working with grocery store operators and the NYC government to finalize the projects, which would eliminate the food desert status for these communities.  Prior to launching Catalyst Cares, Andrews founded Catalyst Consulting, a management consulting firm to retail, apparel and fashion firms.  Andrews was also the Chief Operating Officer of Tadashi; the Director of New Business Initiatives at Liz Claiborne; VP of Business and Strategic Planning at babystyle; and an Investment Banking Financial Analyst on Wall Street. Andrews holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS with Honors from Georgetown University. A proponent of healthy and active living, Andrews is an avid yoga student, runner, spinner and enjoys pilates and other mind/body strength training activities.


 

Keith Carr, Cultural Ambassador 

 

Keith Carr is the Assistant Manager of Community Development for City Harvest’s Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn. City Harvest is a food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding New York City’s hungry. The Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative goals are to increase the amount of nutrition education in the community, increase demand for and access to healthy foods, improve the food retail landscape and support the community’s ability to advocate for themselves utilizing City Harvest’s network and relationships.

 

Prior to joining City Harvest, Keith consulted to small nonprofits, community based organizations and cultural arts groups providing strategic marketing and fund development solutions as well as advising them on board and organizational development.  He has also worked with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and served as Senior Advisor on Economic Development to State Senator Kevin Parker.

 

With more than 15 years’ experience in workforce and economic development;  he has built a career developing and implementing programs and initiatives to employ the disadvantaged, public assistance recipients, former substance abusers, at risk youth and the formerly incarcerated.  He firmly believes in the mantra “Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today, teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime”.

 

Keith studied Economics and Marketing at the University of Connecticut and has completed the Columbia Business School’s Developing Leaders Program for Nonprofit Professionals.  He is the Vice-Chairman of the Senior Board of Stewards at People’s Institutional AME Church,  and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the W.A.N.T.E.D. Project and is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA).  Born and raised in Hartford, CT; Keith has lived Brooklyn for 23 years.