Mission

DooF (“food” backwards) uses the power of multi-media entertainment, education and live events to explore food from every possible perspective: backwards, forwards, sideways, upside-down and inside-out. Doof teaches kids the amazing journey of food from its source to their table, with an interactive, imaginative, sometimes messy and always hands-on experience. We make good food really FUN!

Press

DooFers

Mike Axinn – Creator, Executive Producer

Mike Axinn combines expertise as a writer (IdeasProject, Mix Magazine, BBC, KQED), feature film audio professional (Star Wars, Titanic, The English Patient, Moulin Rouge), video producer, Web Site Editor (Nokia’s very successful IdeasProject.com), and Editorial Director (Involver) to create compelling media content to bring public awareness to social issues and business innovation.

As Editorial Director for at Involver, the web’s most trusted social marketing platform, Mike is responsible for creating and owning the voice of their brand. He was nominated for the MPSE Golden Reel Award for sound on Moulin Rouge, and was part of the sound crew on two Academy Award-winning feature films.

He is the creator of DooF, a Web and video initiative designed to get children excited about healthy food. The 2007 and 2008 DooF-a-Palooza hands-on family food events he created in collaboration with a team at Google were considered to be among the most successful events ever held there.

Mike received his MFA in film, with highest honors, from California College of the Arts and a BA from the University of Chicago.

Scott Gelfand – President

Scott is the owner and founder of the Bay Area’s longest-running shows for families, The Buddy Club Children’s Shows. It began in 1987 when Scott, after becoming a partner and manager of The Other Cafe, started producing children’s shows at the club on Sunday mornings. They were an immediate hit. Parents loved to take their families to this famous comedy club for a one-hour show featuring the best children’s entertainers from around the country.

In October of 2007, The Buddy Club was given a Special Proclamation from Mayor Gavin Newsom and the City and County of San Francisco for 20 years of excellent community service and entertaining hundreds of thousands of Bay Area families.

The Buddy Club now produces more than 100 live events a year to over 100,000 Bay Area families. In the summer of 2009, Scott was asked to be CEO of Tweens, Inc., a media start up company in San Francisco focusing on creating media projects for the tween-age vertical. He immediately sought out the best organizations working with tweens and kids, and found Doof!- an organization devoted to educating children on the importance of healthy food.

Doof was a perfect match for Scott, and he immediately increased the outreach program and sponsorship opportunities so that Doof could reach tens of thousands of kids a year, and bring partners a media brand that reaches millions of parents.

Alexa Cole – Program Director for DooF

Alexa has always been passionate about food and eating healthy.

She also has worked with kids since the age of 13 and thinks teaching kids about food is the cats pajamas.

At DooF, Alexa functions as the organizer of programs, the catalyst of exciting things, and a visionary with rote administrative tasks. She worked for 2 years as a Program Manager in Reproductive Rights and thinks helping women and families be healthy is her true life work!

 

Margo Hall – Writer, Producer, “Brenda Timebender”

A key player in story development and outreach, Margo takes children back through time to uncover the origins of food as DooF’s Brenda Timebender. An award winning actor and director, Margo has performed for Arena Stage, A.C.T., Magic Theatre, Brava!, Word For Word, and many others. She is an original member of Campo Santo, the resident theater company of Intersection For The Arts in San Francisco, where she recently adapted a hit play from the Dave Eggers novel “Sacrament!”.

She recently collaborated with the Tectonic Group (Laramie Project), on the play Stories from Jonestown and The Peoples Temple, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theater in April 2005. Margo received her MFA from Catholic University in Washington DC, and in her spare time teaches acting and directing throughout the Bay Area. Film credits include Haiku Tunnel with Josh Kornbluth.

Alan Tangren – Food Director

Born and raised in California, Alan’s interest in food was fostered early on. As a child he spent the summers on his family’s farm in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Grass Valley, where his great-grandparents had settled in 1902. The primary activity at the farm was the growing of tree fruit, particularly peaches, nectarines, plums, apples, and pears. On the farm, Alan learned to appreciate the qualities of the wide variety of fresh, perfectly ripe fruits available from the orchard. And his happiest hours were those spent at his grandmother’s side in the kitchen.

Turning his interest in food into a life, Alan worked with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse from 1982 until 2004. He cooked in the upstairs café, on the salad and pizza line, and later helped supervise the café kitchen. He also spent several years cooking in the downstairs restaurant with Chef Paul Bertolli and Alice.

From 1991 to 1997 he was the forager for the café and restaurant. As forager he initiated and sustained relationships with many of the farmers, ranchers, and other suppliers, who with their high quality products helped shape the style of cooking at the restaurant.

In 1997 Alan became co-pastry chef for Chez Panisse. In that role he was responsible for planning dessert menus for both the restaurant and the café, their execution, and for obtaining the organic produce and other ingredients used.

In 2000 Alan began working with Mike Axinn and others on a kid’s food program, which has evolved into the present day Doof. As Food Director he works in many areas, including liaison with local farmers and restaurants, composing kid-friendly recipes, creating fun food activities, and posting the occasional blog.

Laura Martin Bacon, Culinary Creative Director/Intergalactic Alien Ambassador

A longtime writer and creative consultant for Williams-Sonoma and other well-known culinary entities, Laura is in charge of finding the magic in good food – and making it fun for kids and families. As the founder of the DooF kids’ food blogging program, she spends much of her time in and out of kitchens with kids and space aliens. (You’ll find her alter egos chronicling the adventures of Y, Lieutenant Trippe, Commander Pollo and Cookbot in the solarship logs of the DSS Gastronomy.) In addition to her life on Planet DooF, Laura is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), Culinary Historians of Northern California, the San Francisco Professional Food Society and The Bakers Dozen.

Doug Werby – Broadcast Creative Director, Segment Director and Editor

As Broadcast Creative Director and Editor, Doug has overseen the development of the promotional DVDs and episode prototypes that laid the groundwork for DooF’s success. He’s also been instrumental in the success of our DVD-lessons on Tomatoes, Squash, Apples, and Citrus.

An award-winning editor and director, Doug is the founder of several of the most prominent commercial production companies in San Francisco, including Pomegranit Editorial, Red Sky Interactive, and Red Sky Films. In addition to numerous commercial clients like Macy’s, E-Trade, KQED and the SF Chronicle, Doug produced and edited the feature film Farmer and Chase, starring Ben Gazzara, Todd Field, and Lara Flynn Boyle.

Maya Owings – Line Producer

Maya joined the Doof team in 2004, with a management background in commercial and feature film production. She spent several years on-staff at a commercial production company in San Francisco and is now a freelance Producer and Production Manager. Maya maintains a personal commitment to documentary film, which she pursues in the Bay area film community and internationally.

As Line Producer for Doof, Maya ensures that each live-action shoot is completed within budget parameters and that the utmost production value is maintained during the often-rigorous process of shooting.

Josh Kurz – Vegetable Animator, “Mr. Worcestershire”

Josh Kurz started as an embryo, 53 times smaller than a US nickel. Then, after high school he went to Russia to paint orphanages and clear shrubbery. In his junior year of college he appeared on Comedy Central for 30 seconds at 4am. This overwhelming success was quickly followed up with a multi-year stint on ABC. There, he and his partner Adam teamed up with good friend and reporter Robert Krulwich who let them dress up as sheep and smash dozens of eggs for Nightline and Good Morning America.

Other memorable achievements include running out of gas in Ohio, getting hot gelatin into a balloon, and building a pickle electrifier for Oliver Sacks.

Josh graduated from The University of Southern California, can whistle in German and lives by the motto: “Always smell your food before you eat it.”

Lisa Bullwinkel, Hoopla Coordinator

Ms. Bullwinkel is the owner of Another Bullwinkel Show, an event production business. She has been the producer of some of the largest festivals in the Berkeley area, including the Solano Avenue Stroll & Parade, the Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival, Berkeley Jazz Festival, Spice of Life Festival, Berkeley Unified School District’s Celebration of Youth Arts, Berkeley City College’s Open House, Pacific Pinball Expo, and Fourth of July at the Berkeley Marina.

She was the Executive Director of the Solano Avenue Association for 17 years and has acted as a publicist for the Berkeley Potters Guild, the Julia Morgan Theatre, and Dancer’s Repertory Theatre. She has been a consultant for the Art Car Festival, the ACCI Gallery, and over 10 merchant associations in the Bay Area. She was instrumental in establishing a Business Improvement District on Solano Avenue in Berkeley and has produced several public art projects.

In 2010, Ms. Bullwinkel was given a Proclamation from the City of Berkeley for her contribution to the arts. She was the chair of the Berkeley Cultural Trust for three years and was on the Cultural Plan Task Force Advisory Committee. She has organized and co-chaired the Berkeley Business District Network and Berkeley Event Producers, sits on the board of the UC Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund Committee, the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, the Berkeley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, and PG&E’s Northern California Advisory Committee.

She has served as the President of Christmas in April, the event coordinator and the E-tree host for Le Conte Elementary School and Willard Middle School PTAs, and has been the block captain for the Fulton-Russell Neighborhood Association for almost 25 years.

She is married to Tim Volz, a photographer and owner of Precision Tile. They have a son, Tyler, who is attending Whittier College, a very large goldfish, a garage full of vintage pinball machines and live in a sweet ‘Berkeley bungalow’ in Berkeley.

Michelle Stern – Community Outreach DooF’er

Michelle Stern owns What’s Cooking, a certified green company that offers cooking classes for children in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only do her classes teach kids and their families to enjoy delicious homemade foods, but they also motivate families to use food and cooking to help those less fortunate.

Michelle was invited to the White House, where she participated in the launch of Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools initiative. She has appeared on ABC’s View From the Bay 7 times and was recently a guest on a radio show about Childhood Obesity.

In addition, her blog won the 2010 Parent & Child Green Blog award from Scholastic. When she isn’t in the kitchen or at the computer, she’s the head chauffeur for her two children, dog walker to her two mutts, and chicken feeder for her backyard flock.

Her first book, The Whole Family Cookbook, comes out this April!

Rebecca Derrough – Market Researcher

Becca graduated from the University of Southern California in 2009 with a B.A. in Communication. She recently made a long-awaited move to San Francisco, and spends her free time exploring all the unique neighborhoods the city has to offer.

She is passionate about good food, and believes that every family deserves access to the right information about eating well.

She has been collaborating with DooF as a Market Researcher in an effort to strengthen their social media presence.

She hopes that she can help broaden the reach of DooF’s message to families everywhere trying to Make Good Food Fun.

Jennifer Schumacher – Multimedia & Social Media Manager

With 10 years industry experience focused in Advertising and Marketing Communications, Jennifer Schumacher’s passion and strength is in delivering exceptional work through integrated campaign development, and account management from concept to completion.

By delegating work and tracking deliverables with the Creative, Production, Interactive, and Post Production teams Jennifer helps maintain the brand vision/voice.

Jennifer’s experience includes: Social Media, Brand Marketing, DRTV, Online, Radio, Print, and Customer Communications (email, newsletter, and promotions), Editing and Production.

Lauren Hopfenbeck – School Partnerships Coordinator

All it took was an introductory course called “Disease and Civilization” for Lauren to see that modern day heart disease and obesity were not much different from historical epidemics. Soon the old saying, “you are what you eat” started to make much more sense. Her exploration of food systems, environmental sustainability and global communities propelled interest in her own cultures eating habits.

Quickly noticing that these issues were not only affecting adults but youth as well, Lauren started to put her energy into projects that would raise awareness of these problems, particularly in school communities. Lauren has worked on a worm composting farm, written curriculum for students K-5 regarding the benefits of gardening and composting, acted as one of 5 leads to implement a student led food garden on her university campus (successfully established in February 2011) and has directed a youth cooking program in Berkeley, Ca.

She is most passionate about school food reform and would like to promote farm-to-cafeteria style breakfast and lunch options that showcase local products in primary and secondary schools. While sustainable food security projects do take up a lot of her time Lauren also loves to play the piano, enjoys practicing yoga and dreams of someday having Anthony Bourdain’s job.

Jack Dean – Culinary Consultant

Jack is a business development strategist with over a decade experience working with artisan and specialty food producers. He is currently a manager at Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Berkeley. Prior to that he was Director of Creative Strategy & Business Development for Cellars at Jasper Hill, which operates one of the largest artisan cheese cellaring facilities in the United States. He masterminded Jasper Hill’s very successful social media & marketing campaigns. He also volunteers with Oakland’s Eat Real Festival. Jack has a degree in International Studies and Political Economy.

Dave Wong – Digital Media Coordinator, Webmaster

Dave has been a storyteller since he was a wee lad. Growing up, he would draw comic books and devour movies and cartoons. His introduction to the Commodore 64 and Atari ST eventually led him to explore Computer Science, before he returned to his love of storytelling in Film Studies.

In 2004, he joined DooF while it was still just a little more than a small yellow door. He brings to the table a multi-disciplinary artistic and technical skillset consisting of graphic design, illustration, web design and computer science.

He is a professional photographer by trade, shooting weddings and corporate gigs all around the Bay Area, and has a BA in Film Studies from UC Berkeley.