Illustration by Sapphire Ortiz, St. Veronica Healthy Hero A second program that Dr. Chilton has started is the Building Wealth and Health Network, where parents get together to talk about their emotions and what they can do to keep their families healthy. The network also works with a bank to help people in the program save money. If people put $20 into the bank, the network doubles it, so they will have $40. “It helps people get back on their feet,” she says. What’s ahead? “I would like to start a [parent-owned] bank,” Dr. Chilton says. “I want to be joyful and create more joy in the world.” —By Healthy Reporter staff Whitehall Elementary School Mariana Chilton 2013 Health Leader Mariana Chilton, Ph.D., M.P.H., is director of Drexel University’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities and a nationally recognized leader on combating child hunger in America. In the last four years, Dr. Mariana Chilton has helped start two programs for people who are hungry in Philadelphia. One is a restaurant where people pay only what they can afford and where they can even eat for free, if they don’t have any money. The restaurant is called the EAT Café, which stands for Everyone at the Table. “We have fed over 3,000 families” in the program’s first few months, Dr. Chilton says. “Some people thought I was bananas” to start a café where people could decide for themselves how much to pay, she says. It turns out that, while some do pay little or even nothing for their meal, others will put down $50, she says. Catching up with...(continued) 34