Ekaya's Mission Statement
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Mission Statement from Storm, co-founder of Ekaya

One of the main questions that kept coming to me over and over again is what can I do in the fight against childhood obesity. Unlike a lot of other diseases that can strike any of us down rich or poor regardless of race or religion obesity is totally preventable. Obesity is almost always a direct result of poor food choices. And it is on this note that I wanted to develop a media campaign that would make eating fruit the coolest thing to do.

If all our kids ever see is junk food marketing aimed at them as the target demographic then the results are going to be what you see all around you. One out of three of American children is obese. This results in an almost total loss of the quality of life that they could otherwise experience.

So what we have done with the Take A Fruit Break Campaign is create a way to fund and promote advertising fruit on national TV both on Cable and National Broadcast Networks.

The first thing that we have to be able to do is fund the project. One of the ways that we are doing this is by offering series' of Fine Art Prints for sale. The profits derived from these art pieces will be used to fund both the creation and the airing of the Take A Fruit Break spots.

The second thing that we are doing is running summer health programs such as the one that we did last summer. We have several different programs. In the first program kids can come up for a day to our retreat in the national forest and we do different outdoor activities with them. In the second program not only the children come but the parents also come and spend a week. We focus on teaching about the effects that different foods have upon our bodies. We work together preparing meals for a balanced healthy diet. A lot of time this results not only in the kids losing weight but the parents also.

We are now entering into the fourth generation of junk food marketing. Many of these campaigns are so effective that we become addicted without even realizing that not only are we addicted but that we are also addicting our children.

Right now we have two sets of prints. One is a set of four prints entitled "Women of Letters" celebrating the intelligence of Black Women. Even though I love the beat of hip-hop music and the related films that are coming out now I bemoan the fact that the image of us portrayed as gangsters, whores, and hustlers is the predominant viewpoint in how we are currently perceived in both our own eyes and the eyes of the world. I totally believe that the destiny of a people can be foretold by the image that they have of themselves.

The second set of four prints is called "The Mythology Collection" a collection of detailed fantasy works that I originally drew for my children.

Enjoy the website! We hope it will inspire you to join us in our efforts!