Lene Saint-Orens
Founder/Executive Director of Whole Kids Adventure, Whole Kids Culinary, Whole Kids Wellness + Hero Fit, Editor-In-Chief of Whole Kids Lifestyle L.L.C.
lene@wholekidsadventure.org
Lene Saint-Orens is immersed in the child care field by piloting the first “Eco-Healthy Child Development Model with it’s focus on physical exercise and all organic nutrition, with an attached Shared Harvest Program” that seeks to transform the way families view relationships with their child development provider.
As a mother, Saint-Orens has experienced the full gamut of challenges associated with caring for young children, to include her and her daughter’s personal battle with food intolerances, and access to affordable, quality child-care settings. As a foodie, she is inspired by her passion for quality food and health education, and her extensive experience living and traveling in Europe.
She recently launched “Hero Fit”, a program under the Whole Kids’ umbrella, in which families are partnered with a team of volunteers, community advocates, and healthy living experts. Over the course of three months, the experts empower the adopted families to lead healthier lives and become advocates and activists for healthy change in their community. The program is facilitated at the families’ homes to address the family culture and empower a healthy change in lifestyle for ALL family members.
By launching Hero Fit, Saint-Orens strives to improve unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits regional and nation-wide and campaigns against the use of processed foods in schools, pre-schools, and the homes of her “Hero Fit” and “WKA” families.
In addition to Hero Fit, Saint-Orens launched Whole Kids Culinary, a program that transforms communities through the power of food by challenging families everywhere to change the way they eat and bringing mobile cooking classes into class rooms, community centers and organizations!
Prior to founding Whole Kids Projects and Hero Fit, Saint-Orens pursued a career in Human Resources, holds a Professional Human Resources Certification from UT Austin, and a degree in both Business, and Marketing. Saint-Orens is also a licensed massage therapist and a self-inspired Chef and passionate foodie.
With her daughter as inspiration, she is now putting her passion into action and seeks to create a learning experience where children are nurtured, educated and positioned to become well-rounded and promise-filled individuals who’ll flourish into sustainability and environmental health leaders, and where communities can heal themselves through the power of food.
She frequently travels to her home and other destinations within Europe to bring new innovative ideas to Whole Kids Projects. She is also the Owner and Publisher of Whole Kids Lifestyle magazine and Whole Lifestyle Magazine, both organic resource e-publications for families.
Jackie Taylor
Director of Education
Jackie has over 20 years of experience in the Early Child Care and Education field and holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and a M.S. in Family and Child Studies. Her thesis was on the Impact of Early Childhood Experiences on Choosing Child Care as a Profession, which is currently submitted for publication.
Taylor completed a one year fellowship with the Office of Head Start at the end of September 2009. During this time, she has been assigned to the Quality Assurance Division working on monitoring, training and technical assistance projects. Prior to her fellowship, she was the Project Director of Healthy Child Care Texas at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Previous positions include working as a consultant to the Military, Head Start and other Child Care programs and training and mentoring entry level child care workers.
Taylor’s work with the military included consultation on NAEYC accreditation at several Air Force installations, including Menwith Hill, Dover, Columbus and Ellsworth Air Force Bases. She also held the position as Program Administrator with the Texas Workforce Commission at their Child Care Services Department. Her job responsibilities included writing, editing, and scoring several Requests for Proposals and writing the quality section of the 2004-2005 Child Care State Plan. In addition she managed the ‘Train Our Teachers’ Scholarship Program. Jackie also represented TWC on several statewide committees, including the Head Start State Collaboration Office Advisory Committee, Texas Early Care and Education Coordination Advisory Committee, the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning Task Force and led the Head Start, Child Care, Pre-K Collaboration Committee. Jackie worked closely with the 2003 Legislative session, providing bill analysis on child care related bills and contributing to several legislative reports.
Furthermore, Jackie held several key positions with the Department of Defense Child Development Services in Germany and Italy. In her position as CDS Coordinator, she was responsible for a staff of over 60, overseeing care for approximately 2500 children ages 6 weeks to 12 years in both center-based and home-based care. She developed and executed an appropriated budget of 1.1 million dollars, while successfully overseeing the center’s re-accreditation from NAEYC. Her program was considered one of the best military programs in the European military community.
Her passion for healthy foods and quality early-care models led her to Whole Kids Adventure, where she is now a valued team-member, defining the model and helping to establish standards that will make WKA stand out among all child development models in the nation.
