We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Svetlana Elgart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Svetlana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Being a mom of three daughters and very involved in their daily activities and volunteering in schools, I have noticed early that there is no education provided to our children on health, wellness, nutrition in our school system. I also have noticed how many children were obese and diabetic that were around my children and started to ask myself the question why does this happen. As per Harvard University study the only way to change something is through education. I felt that I wanted to do something meaningful that will help our next generation offset diabetes and obesity and decided that Rainbow Chefs Academy will the vehicle for that change that is so needed in our society. Our goal is to offset diabetes and obesity in our next generation through education with a hands on component at every class. That is how Rainbow Chefs Academy was born.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was born in Ukraine and my parents immigrated to USA in 1978, when I was a child. My family being not American, cooked from scratch, never ate fast food, loved growing our own fruits/vegetables and most of all we always were in the kitchen together with my dad cooking and having fun. So I started being in the kitchen from an early age. My background is business administration/business management but my passion has always been health, wellness and nutrition and creating healthy, easy recipes. Once I had children, I made a decision that I will also ensure that my children will grow up eating healthy, and being well educated on health, wellness and nutrition so that they can learn how to lead a healthy lifestyle. Once the older girls went to college, it is at that time that I decided that I really want to help our society, community and our children worldwide and offset diabetes and obesity through education starting in school from an early age, which is when I started Rainbow Chefs. Our goal is to offset diabetes and obesity in our next generation K-12 through education with a hands on component at every class. Our proprietary courseware is common core aligned, STEAM/STEM, CASEL and NGSS and can be used in schools, after schools, enrichment, supplemental and home school. I’m so proud and excited on how far we’ve come and how widely accepted and loved our program is in California today. My dream and my goal is to bring this to as many children worldwide as possible and make the next generation a healthy one.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think to be an empreneur resilience is a must. My story is simple, when I started Rainbow Chefs everyone said to me that health, wellness and nutrition is not a subject, not important and will not be taught in school and no one will want this kind of program. I learned that I’m quiet resilient by truly believing in our mission with my heart and my head and putting my all into this company. Today, Rainbow Chefs Academy is loved by many schools, teachers and students and has almost a 100% retention with our customers.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Rainbow Chefs pivoted to Rainbow Chefs Academy when COVID started and also it coincided with scaling Rainbow Chefs from service company to a SAAS platform so that we can offer this program worldwide to all children. Now 2 years after we started in 2020 as Rainbow Chefs Academy we have schools/children on our platform resigning with us, and we are really ready for national growth. We just signed with 2 large school districts which were referrals and word of mouth for which we are so happy thankful for.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rainbowchefsacademy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainbowchefs_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RainbowChefs
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/svetlanaelgart
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rainbowchefs
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi94RlZ7Kk-Ow0A05_wTY8Q
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rainbow-chefs-burlingame?osq=rainbow+chefs

Image Credits
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