Biography

In1998, Megan turned away from a corporate life in New York City and spent the next several years traveling around the world as a cook on sailboats and as a freelance photographer. In 2002, she landed in San Francisco and obtained a certification as a holistic nutrition educator. Soon, she was developing slightly irreverent “nutrition” programming with jail inmates at the San Francisco County Women’s Jail. In 2007, a group of peer-to-peer teen nutrition educators from Manual Arts High School in South Central Los Angeles heard about her work and invited her down to help them improve the nutrition education program at their school.

They started small—a monthly guest speaker, bags of veggies, cutting boards, and nutrition education. Now, their efforts have blossomed and manifested into RootDown LA, a community food project operating in three South Los Angeles neighborhoods with the help of the youth participants, referred to as Cultivars.