Susan Selasky Recipient of Award Celebrating Whole Grains

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BOSTON, March 5, 2013—Today, Oldways, a Boston-based nonprofit, announced Susan M. Selasky as the recipient of the 2012 K. Dun Gifford Journalism Award.  The award, named in honor of Oldways’ late founder, recognizes and honors the important role of communications in changing the way people eat. The prize was awarded to Selasky for her article, “Nutritional Whole in One,” which appeared in the Detroit Free Press.

Submissions were accepted based on this past year’s selected subject matter — whole grains and their contribution to better health — and were required to reflect one or more of Oldways’ founding principles: to be positive, practical, science-based, and tradition-based and to celebrate the pleasures of the table.  Entries were open to news produced for any platform — print, broadcast or online.

A jury including journalists Mimi Sheraton, Judith Weinraub and David Rosengarten, plus Gifford’s daughter, Apple Gifford, and Oldways president, Sara Baer-Sinnott, selected the winning entry.  As the Grand Prize winner, Selasky will receive a spot on one of Oldways’ popular Culinarias, one-of-a-kind Health through Heritage culinary trips throughout the world, or at one of Oldways’ scientific and culinary conferences.

Selasky, who lives in Grosse Ile, Michigan, is the food writer and Test Kitchen director for the Detroit Free Press, where she has worked since 1984. For the last 17 years, she has helped shape the newspaper’s food coverage, reporting on a myriad of food subjects, people and news in the food world. She develops and tests recipes and answers readers’ questions about all things food. Selasky created and writes the popular Sunday Supper column that appears in the paper’s Sunday Life section. Cooking with Susan Marie is her weekly food column that appears in the Life section every Thursday.

She received the Distinguished Service Award (2009) for food reporting from the Michigan Food and Beverage Association and the Detroit Association of Grocery Manufacturers’ Representatives. In 2011, she was the project editor and coauthor of the “Heart Smart Cookbook”, in partnership with the Detroit Free Press and Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System.

“Congratulations to Susan Selasky — we received outstanding entries from around the country but after careful consideration, the judges selected Susan’s Detroit Free Press article which provided science based information and practical cooking tips while enticing readers to explore delicious ancient grains such as amaranth, farro, quinoa and barley,” said Sara Baer-Sinnott, president of Oldways.  “We would like to thank all who participated in this year’s K. Dun Gifford Journalism Award — we are sure that Dun is smiling at this well deserved recognition.”

Gifford, an influential food advocate, started Oldways in 1990.  He believed that positive and practical solutions, grounded in science, traditions and delicious foods and drinks, would help address the threatening tsunami of chronic diseases. Gifford invited others intrigued by his vision – scientists, chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook authors, and journalists — to join him at the Oldways Table to address this important challenge. By documenting and educating others about the healthy “old ways,” Oldways and its partners have made strides toward changing the way people eat.  This is the second year of the K. Dun Gifford Award.

For more information about Oldways, the complete award rules, or to stay informed about next year’s award please visit: http://oldwayspt.org/newsroom-media/k-dun-gifford-award.

For more information about whole grains, please visit the Whole Grains Council: www.wholegrainscouncil.org.

About Oldways
Oldways (www.oldwayspt.org) is a nonprofit food and nutrition education organization, with a mission to guide people to good health through heritage, using practical and positive programs grounded in science and tradition. Simply, we advocate for the healthful pleasures of real food. Oldways is the parent organization for The Whole Grains Council and The Mediterranean Foods Alliance, and is well-known for creating the Whole Grain Stamp and the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid.