Elizabeth Prueitt, co-owner of Tartine and Bar Tartine and wife of bread god Chad Robertson, is spearheading a campaign to fund a new school in San Francisco to teach kids with motor disabilities like cerebral palsy, which affects her four-year-old daughter Archer. The school is called the Conductive Learning Center of San Francisco (CLCSF), and it’s based on a specific program of motor-skill development developed in Eastern Europe that isn’t widely available to kids in the States. Prueitt hopes to launch the school with an inaugural class of seven children, all around Archer’s age, and eventually expand. They still need a space for the school, and funding for the specially designed furniture for the kids, and with that in mind, Prueitt has enlisted the help of a bunch of local food-world friends to donate their time, and dinners.
For the next few hours (until 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET), there’s an online silent auction to benefit the school, featuring a bunch of swell items like dinner for two with wine at Chez Panisse, a ten-person picnic with former Bar Tartine chef Chris Kronner, a twelve-person ice cream social at Humphry Slocombe, as well as dinners at Bar Jules, Locanda, and elsewhere.
Furthermore, there will be multiple fundraising events in the coming months, including a casual sausage dinner at Bar Tartine by chef Samin Nosrat, and more.
The school is necessary, Prueitt argues, because children with motor disabilities are so often sidelined in traditional classrooms, confined to wheelchairs with aides and unable to full develop their potential. Prueitt is also on the hunt for real estate, and she’s eager for tips about warehouses or other large spaces that could be built out, just so long as they feature some outdoor space. “I want to have a garden, with raised beds and wheelchair access. Their time for play looks different, but I think it would be amazing to have a type of Edible Schoolyard program going.”
Check out all the auction items and make a bid. And look here to learn more about Conductive Learning.
CLCSF Auction Items [Bidding for Good]
Conductive Learning Center of San Francisco
