Worth The Risk

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Each and every one of us has the ability to effect change—to make our world a better place. The key is to begin in our own backyards, look at needs within our communities and then decide to do something about them. The dedicated women selected as this year’s recipients of Harlequin’s More Than Words award have changed lives, one good deed at a time. To celebrate their accomplishments, bestselling authors have written stories inspired by these real-life heroines.

In this book, Meryl Sawyer honors the work of Gracie Cavnar, founder of the Recipe for Success Foundation.

We hope More Than Words inspires you to get in touch with the real-life heroine living inside of you.

Thank you for your interest in the Harlequin More Than Words program

Dear Reader,

For many years Harlequin Books has been a leader in supporting and promoting causes that are of concern to women and celebrating ordinary women who make extraordinary differences in the lives of others. Through Harlequin More Than Words, we annually honor women for their compassionate dedication to those that need it most, and donate $10,000 to their chosen causes.

We are proud to highlight our current Harlequin More Than Words award recipients by telling you about them and, with the help of some of the biggest names in women’s fiction, creating wonderfully entertaining and moving fictional short stories based on these women and their causes. Within the following pages you will find a heartwarming story written by Meryl Sawyer, one of our two free e-books available at www.HarlequinMoreThanWords.com. Be sure to look for Pamela Morsi’s Daffodils in Spring, our second story also available free on-line. Three additional stories written by Carly Phillips, Donna Hill and Jill Shalvis can be found on the bookshelf of your favorite bookstore in More Than Words, Volume 7. All five of these stories are beautiful tributes to the Harlequin More Than Words award recipients who inspired them, and we hope they will touch your heart and inspire the real-life heroine in you.

Thank you for your support; all proceeds from the sale of More Than Words, Volume 7 will be returned to the Harlequin More Than Words program so we can assist more causes of concern to women. And you can help even more by learning about and getting involved with the charities highlighted by Harlequin More Than Words. Together we can make a difference!

Sincerely,

Donna Hayes Publisher and CEO Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

Ever tried to feed a child quinoa with grilled chicken, roasted root vegetable soup, whole wheat muffins and a green salad? Gracie Cavnar has, and not only did the kids try it, many cleaned their plates.

Gracie is the energetic and passionate founder of the Recipe for Success Foundation, a Houston-based charitable organization with the singular goal of combating childhood obesity by changing the way children eat and think about the food on their fork. More than 3,000 children spend several hours each month planting gardens at school, tending to their plants and cooking up a batch of healthy, delicious food they eat together come harvest time.

This Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ program Cavnar designed has transformed the lives of more than 12,000 of Houston’s most needy kids one carrot at a time.

In an era when nearly 32% of American children are overweight or obese, Gracie is certain she couldn’t have chosen a better time to take action.

“I’m all about food. Love, love, love it,” she says. “But we’re getting away from food—real food. Instead, we’re left with Frankenstein food.”

This highly processed food, filled with additives, chemicals and little nutritional value, is the first thing she wants to see kicked out of children’s diets. And she’s convinced—through her personal experience and by watching students change their eating habits since launching the Recipe for Success Foundation in 2005—that all children have the capacity to eat well. Eating patterns and lifestyle habits can be changed, especially if children are reached before the sixth grade.

“I’ve lived my whole life this way so I know you can get kids to eat good food,” she says. “They don’t just automatically turn it down. It’s all about presentation and making it fun.”

Vending machines out, good food in

Gracie’s life before Recipe for Success can be described as a mixture of high fashion, entrepreneurship and “California hippy mom.” Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, she has worked as a fashion model, been a residential and commercial architect and owned a hospitality marketing and public relations company. She is also a mom to three kids who ate baby food she made herself and never knew a can of soda until they turned eight and started visiting friends’ houses.

But Gracie doesn’t come across as a health-food zealot; instead, she acts more like a cheerleader of good living and even better eating. She has recruited many dozens of high-profile chefs to create the centerpiece of her program—Chefs in Schools™. And she is delighted to count the president and First Lady as fellow advocates who share her sensibilities about nutrition. In fact, Cavnar now serves on the First Lady’s national task force focused on childhood obesity.