Agency with Heart
The Lisa Ekus Group Celebrates by Giving Back

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On the surface, The Lisa Ekus Group, LLC (formerly Lisa Ekus Public Relations Company) is about food. Take a closer look, however, and you will see that the Hatfield, Massachusetts company hungers for much more than cookbooks, cookbook authors, chefs, restaurants, and product spokespeople. As it turns out, the core of their business — the real "meat and potatoes," one might say — is charity.

"Our office is attached to my house, so work is literally part of my life, 24/7," says company founder Lisa Ekus-Saffer, who is an ardent supporter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and a long-time activist for The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. "Agent work. PR. Media training. I love it all — we all do. But, at the end of the day, nothing feels better, or is more important, than giving back."

On Thursday, April 5th, The Lisa Ekus Group celebrated 25 years in business. And to commemorate the occasion, the company worked with their clients to identify 25 charitable organizations which they will recognize and support throughout the year.

"We asked our clients to share the organizations that are near and dear to their hearts and ended up with far more than 25 suggestions," explains Literary Associate Jane Falla. "Most clients offered a handful of suggestions, not just one, and took time to explain the reason behind their choices."

The list contains a number of food-related organizations, such as Share Our Strength, Chefs for Humanity, and the Southern Foodways Alliance. But, it also contains several non-food related organizations, like The World Wildlife Fund, Prince Liam The Brave, Aid for Aids, and the Jazz Foundation of America. (See complete list below.)

Celebrated cookbook author Kate Heyhoe, has this to add about working with The Lisa Ekus Group: "Lisa is a good agent. But, more important to me, she's a good person. I like knowing that every time she sells my work to a publisher some of the earnings from both her end and mine go to doing good for others. When that happens, every book is automatically a success."

The company will maintain the list on this website, www.LisaEkus.com, for the entire year and is encouraging its clients and friends to consider making a donation to whichever organization inspires and feeds their desire to give back.

"Looking back at the past 25 years, I am extremely proud of what we've accomplished and how far we've come," says Ekus-Saffer. "And, considering that the compilation of this list is one of our first tasks of the New Year, I have to say that I like where we're going!"

For more information about these 25 charities, to schedule an interview with Lisa Ekus-Saffer, or to find out more about The Lisa Ekus Group, LLC, please contact Sarah Baurle or Jane Falla by phone at 413-247-9325 or via e-mail at SarahB@lisaekus.com or JFalla@lisaekus.com. Additional information is also available here at www.LisaEkus.com.

The List

The Food Bank of Western MA
About: The mission of The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts is to work with their community to reduce hunger and increase food security.

Share Our Strength
About: Share Our Strength inspires and organizes individuals and businesses to share their strengths to help end hunger.

Chefs for Humanity:
About: Chefs for Humanity is a grassroots coalition of chefs who came together to raise funds and resources for humanitarian relief.

Southern Foodways Alliance
About: Southern Foodways Alliance is an organization devoted to the preservation and celebration of the traditionally diverse food cultures of the American South.

IACP Culinary Trust
About: The Culinary Trust celebrates the culinary past and funds the future through scholarship, grant, and preservation programs that encourage and enable professionals in the pursuit of the culinary arts.

Women Chefs & Restaurateurs
About: The mission of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs is to promote the education and advancement of women in the restaurant industry and the betterment of the industry as a whole.

Chicago Culinary Historians
About: Chicago Culinary Historians is an educational organization committed to the study of the history of food and drink in human cultures.

Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
About: CISA aims to sustain agriculture in western Massachusetts, throughout the state, and across the country, build a secure local food and farming system, strengthen relationships between consumers and farmers, increase farm profitability, promote environmental sustainability, preserve rural communities, and ensure that fresh, healthy, locally grown food is available, affordable, and accessible for all citizens.

Slow Food USA
About: Slow Food USA envisions a future food system that is based on the principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice - in essence, a food system that is good, clean and fair.

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
About: The world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education, and patient services, the Society's mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

Peace Trees Vietnam
About: Peace Trees Vietnam sponsors landmine clearance, citizen diplomacy/tree-planting programs for American and Vietnamese citizens on cleared land, victim and survivor assistance, and landmines awareness education programs for children.

Treehouse Foundation
About: The Treehouse Foundation helps children in their care find new hope and new beginnings through the development of programs, practices, and partnerships that address fundamental issues of foster care and foster care adoption.

National Yiddish Book Center
About: A vibrant, non-profit organization working to rescue Yiddish and other modern Jewish books and celebrate the culture they contain, the National Yiddish Book Center is supported by 30,000 members and is now the largest and fastest-growing Jewish cultural organization in America.

Jazz Foundation of America
About: The Jazz Foundation of America promotes cultural and educational activities that build awareness of jazz music and of the musicians who make it, and assists struggling jazz artists, many of whom are getting older or sick, with medical, financial, and career development needs.

Aid for Aids
About: Aid for Aids provides financial assistance for necessities of life to adults and children living below the poverty-line with HIV/AIDS, and their goals are to prevent homelessness and hunger and to enhance self-sufficiency and independent living.

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
About: The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation aims to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all, and energizing science to find the cures.

Kids for Kids
About: The only organization created to help children struggling to survive in remote villages in Darfur, Sudan, Kids for Kids supports projects which are long-lasting, self-sustaining, and community-led.

ACORN
About: ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.

Seeds of Solidarity
About: Seeds of Solidarity is a nonprofit organization that provides people of all ages with the inspiration and practical tools to use renewable energy and grow food in their communities.

Children's Miracle Network
About: Children's Miracle Network - the alliance of premier hospitals for children - is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children's hospitals across North America.

YWCA
About: Strengthened by diversity, the YWCA draws together members who strive to create opportunities for women's growth, leadership, and power in order to attain a common vision: peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all people.

National Association of Multicultural Education (NAME)
About: NAME is an organization that brings individuals and groups together that share an interest in multicultural education from all levels of education, different academic disciplines, and from diverse educational institutions and occupations.

The Center for Whole Communities
About: Center for Whole Communities creates a more just, balanced and healthy world by exploring, honoring, and deepening the connections among land, people and community.

Careers through Culinary Arts Program
About: The Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) works with public schools across the nation to prepare students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry.

Prince Liam The Brave
About: This blog is for Liam Witt, son of Gretchen Holt and Larry Witt, big brother to Ella Witt and master of Goldie the Lab and Madison the Retriever. Liam has recently been diagnosed with a type of cancer called Neuroblastoma. Liam will have to go through some aggressive treatment with a relatively long recovery period. This blog was created to give you the latest status on Liam's health and progress. Larry and Gretchen will be posting good news and any concerns related to Liam's battle with this disease.

World Wildlife Fund
About: World Wildlife Fund's mission is the conservation of nature, a mission carried out by using the best available scientific knowledge, advancing that knowledge where possible, and working to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth and the health of ecological systems.