Coqui the Chef appears on ABC's "The Chew" and TLC's "What Not to Wear"

(PRESS RELEASE) On Friday, September 6 New Yorkers get another healthy serving of their favorite Latino chef , "Coqui the Chef," when he appears on ABC's "The Chew" at 1pm EST, and TLC's longest running prime time series "What Not to Wear" at 10pm EST. 

"The Chew's" celebrity chefs Mario Batali, Michael Symon, and Carla Hall, lifestyle expert Clinton Kelly and the fresh face of healthy living Daphne Oz serve up everything from cooking and home entertaining to food trends, restaurants, holidays and more. TLC's "What Not to Wear" features fashion experts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, who face an assortment of fashionably challenged contributors, providing them with fashion advice and life-changing transformations. This season, the show's last, includes some of Stacy and Clinton's biggest challenges to-date, including Coqui the Chef founder Tania Lopez.

Lopez founded Coqui the Chef in 2007 and her personal mission is to empower kids, adults and entrepreneurs to live a healthy life and lead a productive business. She works with organizations and communities in the South Bronx who want to improve overall food quality and promote healthy lifestyles. An alarming number of Latino youth in the Bronx, where nutritious foods are not always readily available, suffer from high levels of obesity.

Tania is a proud mom of two teenagers and a frog.

In the spring of 2012 Lopez launched "Coqui the Chef's Bodega Adventures," a series of cooking demonstrations and nutrition workshops at local bodegas throughout the South Bronx, in an effort to help combat youth obesity in those neighborhoods. Bodega Adventures is designed to help youth and their families create flavorful, healthful, and simple meals with fresh produce and other healthy ingredients from local bodegas. It also aims to encourage bodega owners to stock healthy food items that may not previously have been available, such as whole wheat tortillas, low-fat cheese and yogurt, fruit/veggies smoothies and drinks. 

Recipes are available in the Coqui the Chef Bodega Adventures Cookbook.

From humble beginnings, over the past six years Coqui's fame has continued to grow. Coqui the Chef received The American Heart Association's New York City Community Impact Grant, as part of its ongoing effort to improve the cardiovascular health of the city's youth. Coqui partners with Healthy Neighborhoods City Harvest Program, Citizens Committee of New York City and was the Guest of Honor/Ambassador of Health at the 55th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2012. Coqui has also been featured on WPIX Channel 11, in The Daily News, Zagat, City Spoonful's "Dishing it Up" and on Gothamist.com and Boricua.com.

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Guess who's on "What NOT to Wear" and "The Chew"?

I bet you can't guess who's going to be on "What NOT to Wear" and "The Chew" on Friday September 6, 2013.

Well, you are almost right...

Coqui the Chef's founder Tania Lopez will be starring on both shows.  You don't want to miss out on the fun, laughter and tears.   If you have Facebook we created an invitation to help you remember the date and time of the shows.

For more details visit: http://on.fb.me/19OzeBA

If you don't have Facebook, jot down the date and time on your calendar, smartphone, etc.

Both shows air Friday September 6, 2013

Show: The Chew (ABC channel) Time: 1 pm EST

Show: What NOT to Wear (TLC channel) Time: 10 pm EST

NOTE: On the day of the shows, we will have a LIVE Twitter and Instagram Party to answer questions and comments.

Please follow both Twitter profiles

Tania Lopez: https://twitter.com/tanialopezfoodi

Coqui the Chef: https://twitter.com/coquithechef

AND

Instagram:  http://instagram.com/tanialopezfoodie

AND

Pinterest: http://bit.ly/19H9d89

Kids Who Learn How to Cook...

KIDS WHO LEARN HOW TO COOK ARE HUNGRY FOR HEALTHY CHOICES

Coqui the Chef teaches kids to pass up junk food and favor healthier fruits and veggies by offering a simple solution: giving them an apron and the tools necessary to help them with meal preparation.

Summer Cooking Class at Police Athletic League

Thanks to Citizens Committee of New York City Neighborhood Grant we are able to provide summer cooking classes to Police Athletic League Summer Camp.

See photos: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjHBVVn5
 

Spring Teaching Head Start Food Art and Nutrition

What we thought would be our toughest challenge turned out to be our most joyful experience.  For the first time we taught head start kids about nutrition and food.  Together we created food art such as fruit and vegetable faces, apple frogs, and watermelon pizza.

See photos:  http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGZJQTy 

For updates on our most recent projects "LIKE" Coqui the Chef's Facebook page
 http://facebook.com/coquithechef 

Preparing Healthy Food for Healthy Children

While some are busy bemoaning the declining health of New Yorkers, others, like entrepreneur Tania Lopez, forge new career paths and spread the word about health and nutrition in the process.  Mother of two, Lopez paid attention to reports that the health of American children was declining.  With particular concern for her son, Lopez decided to take action.

Reaching to her Puerto Rican roots for inspiration, she found healthy, delicious and efficient recipes and incorpo-rated them into her household. “I didn’t think it was hard, I just thought, ‘I want to do this because it makes me feel happy’ and I’m passionate about food,” she comments.  It worked. As her family’s diet changed, Lopez watched her son grow from a cuddly little boy into a healthy and athletic young man. Inspired by her son’s transformation, an impassioned Lopez began a social enterprise organization determined to reduce obesity and diabetes in children through expanding the changes she made at home to the community. 

“They don’t pay right away and grants are not easy to get...Money is an important factor, don’t stick to one way of getting money. Try multiple ways, one will eventually fall into place.” ~Tania Lopez

The story continues on pages 32-33  http://bit.ly/16U0ewt