Jillena Hernández started learning to love incorporating unique and exciting whole grains and vegetables into her daily meals from her mother who refused to eat white flour and sugar. She blogs about creating delicious plant based meals on her blog Eat Well, Live Free. She is a founding member of the California Maternal Mental Health Task Force and currently works for the California State Assembly.

Jillena spent six years in Santa Barbara catering and is an avid vegetarian home cook. She is learning to grow her own food in her backyard garden, and loves to share the bounty with her neighbors and friends who frequent her Sacramento house. She is excited to bring her policy background and her love of sharing healthy foods to the Center.

“The work of the Food Literacy Center is critical to the education and health of our community, especially our children. In a society where there are dedicated aisles to ‘health foods’ in select super markets, it is imperative that people know what they are eating and where it comes from.”