They say it takes a village to raise a child.
Meet your new neighbors.

Shannon ‘Shakaya Breeze' Leone converted her whole family over to the benefits of Raw Foods 7 years ago, including her Italian husband and their two young boys. As a Raw Mom, she is ‘Fearless and Ferocious' about her raw mothering and describes parenting as a sacred task. She created a documentary called Raising Children Raises Us about Un-Schooling, Super-Nutrition and Creating Sanctuary in the Home, which premiered at the first annual raw film festival in Hollywood last year.

Shannon has created the very popular The Healthy Lunchbox: Nutritious Meals Your Kids Won't Trade for a Lollipop and co-produced the Raw Mom Summit, interviewing more than 30 World Leaders in the field of nutrition, education, health and conscious parenting including; Byron Katie, Jean Liedloff, Victoria Boutenko, Susun Weed, Brigette Mars, Shazzie, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Brian Clement, PhD, David Wolfe, Elena Tonetti and many other visionaires and pioneers.

Shannon has been doing radio, TV and print interviews and has posted over a dozen videos of her raw family life on youtube. She also writes for naturallysavvy.com, Women with Vision, foreverhealthy.net, Pie Magazine, Vibrance and The Raw Divas.

Shannon is passionate about raising her children High-Raw/Low-Tech, loving their father (her beloved partner), and empowering women to connect to their sacred self. Whatever a woman does not give to herself, she cannot give to her child or mate. Shannon believes women are the Spiritual Leaders in relationship and our children and men thrive to the extent that we do!

The women who follow support her and this project in sharing a message of health and empowerment for other conscious mothers around the world:

Joanne Newell

Once upon a time, two little angels called Arabella and Evangeline held hands, looked down over the earth, pointed, looked at each other, giggled, and said, “She’s the one!”. They chose Joanne Newell to be their mum – and she’s so glad they did!

Joanne is a 38-year-old mum to 7-year-olds Evie and Bella; she’s in love with a handsome boy called Darren; she lives in one of the most blessed countries on earth; and she works as a recipe-book writer and freelance book editor. With the help of her daughters, she authored the first-ever raw food recipe book written exclusively for children; Monkey Mike's Raw Food Kitchen: An Uncookbook for Kids. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, and loves sharing the gift of raw foods with anyone who’ll listen.

She works hard at being a good mum, and knows that being able to do this relies on looking after herself – taking quiet, solitary time, exercising, and eating well. She wants to be not just a good example to her children, but an absolute inspiration! Oh, and having fun is a big part of the equation. After all, apart from growing and learning, isn’t having fun the main reason why we chose to take a ride on this beautiful planet we call earth?

She’s honoured to be a member of the Raw Mom team, to be able to beam out messages of love, compassion, kindness, and inspiration – all while never truly knowing how these messages positively affect people’s lives. She also loves being a part of this supportive community of absolutely amazing mums from around the globe!

Lisa Marie Lindenschmidt

I am continually being renewed and recharged by food. My relationship with food has been a roller coaster of a journey and I've found that I've come to a place of religious reverence for the stuff. Food has helped me understand my family, build new friendships, and have different experiences within my body. Most importantly, this interactions between food and me on spiritual, emotional, and physical levels has redefined my philosophical and religious views.

I am a homeschooling, raw vegan mom. I have a BA in Philosophy and Women's studies, am a certified raw vegan chef and teacher, and Reiki practitioner. I also own Rite Food and Company (www.ritefoodandcompany.com) and give raw food demos and workshops on intentional eating. My daughter, Mo, and I have a weekly podcast, called Sweet Peas Podcast, in which we chronicle our raw foods journey. I've written a (mostly cooked) vegan cookbook, Rite Food: Vegan Feasts for All Seasons, and am in the process of writing a second book on the subject of raw foods and intentional eating.

My life's passion is uncovering and experiencing joy as often as possible. I am hoping that through my contributions to RawMom.com, I can share some of those ideas to do that and inspire others to do the same.

-Lisa Marie

Jamie Abrams

I am a 29-year-old raw-yoga-mom-domestic-guru-ess to a sparkly little fellah called Zenchai (3) as well as being herb-salad-dressing-maker, resident sprouter and wife to a handsome man. We live in the metropolis of London (UK) with great aspirations of escaping the rat race to a raw eco-sustainable community.

My glittery tool bag is full of dazzling gizmos seeped in rich experiences including: Health & Wellness B.A., Business A.A., certification in Integral Yoga, Thai yoga massage practitioner, Health Educator, aromatherapy, plus I studied childbirth education, traditional Chinese medicine along with tuina, qigong and taijiquan.

I am continually growing and branching out, striving to be the most blissful being ever. The near future holds a pregnancy yoga teacher training and more Anusara yoga training, so I can keep helping the women I love. I have also created a website dedicated to raw foods, yoga and mothering.

BLISS is my offering. I can’t wait to sprinkle some in your lives!

-Jamie

Joanna L. Steven

Joanna was born in France, where she lived for many years before moving to Iowa after marrying her American born husband Matthew. She is a Law graduate from the Rene Descartes Law School of Paris (France), and holds a BS in Psychology from Iowa State University. She is currently working on her Masters in Psychology as well as her Clinical Nutrition degree.

After becoming a vegetarian in 2003, she discovered the raw diet after reading an interview by Tonya Kay on bodybuilding.com. She now eats a high raw diet with a big emphasis on leafy greens and chlorophyll rich foods – often having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner! She is also happily addicted to raw kale chips.

Aside from writing for the Raw Divas and Raw Mom blogs, she has published several eBooks (the Raw Nutritional Analysis serie) (http://kayosmarket.com/#2) with Tonya Kay, and regularly blogs (joannasteven.blogspot.com) about raw foodism. She was also published in the Spring 09 edition of Get Fresh! magazine.

Joanna is the co-owner of the online store Sirova, where she sells affordable raw, organic food and more.

In her free time, she enjoys growing organic veggies in her backyard, and endlessly spoiling her cats and husband. She also loves feeding green smoothies, creamy raw cakes and other raw delights to her friends, and watch them enjoy every last bite!

Sarah Womer

Sarah is many things of which her favourite is being mommy to a radiant beam of love, her two-year old son!
She also regularly (as regularly as motherhood can permit anyway) practices yoga and is a certified instructor, bikes as much as possible, and throws some epic walks and runs in there when the timing works.

She loves to wear shiny 1980’s throw-back pants and rainbow socks, go thrift-store shopping for her everyday clothing needs, and do up her hair like a rock-star (minus the toxic Net of Aqua like the ole days…) because “how can your mood be dark when you’re shining bright?” she likes to say.

When she isn’t having fun dressing like a rainbow, she likes to make delicious healthy treats to cultivate the RAWesome in life and nothing makes her happier than to share them with friends and family.

Writing and reading keep her sane through the trials and tribulations of single-motherhood (as well as a RAWkin’ diet and playful disposition) and believe that she is always writing and reading something!

As her journey has taken her to through the twenty-something destructiveness of partying on through those dark ages to being a healthy, happy, constructive mommy of a healthy, happy, energetic ecstatic little boy, she has now devoted the rest of her time (that isn’t her baby boy’s!) to give back to the world that saved her and keep showing others there can be light for them too!

Belit Yisrael

Greetings
My name is Belit. I have been around the sun 44 times and currently reside in the Negev Desert in Israel. I am a raw food master of 17 years.

I am the overjoyed, dedicated, enthusiastic mother of three beautiful children, all birthed naturally, Kheftsiyah, 6, Tsahaleeyah, 4 and Shakhariyah, 2. Each represent my testimony of life and living. My passion and love for them is ony heightened by my overall acceptance of the elements which created their beings; spirit, earth, water, air and fire.

Creator/owner of "the One", Wholistic systems for the mind, body and spirit, is my realization of the connection we each have to the divine, sacred energies of the universe and this planet we call Earth.
My dedication is to share my talents with the world so that we may all be healed.

Peace...
Belit

Celeste Kurth

I am a 42 year old Mom of 3 boys. I have raised my boys holistically, but not always vegetarian. We have always been into whole foods and growing as much of it ourselves as possible.
I am a two year breast cancer survivor and have come to raw foods to help heal my body of some chronic health issues. I was a licensed massage therapist and cosmetologist for 23 years, a self proclaimed studying herbalist and nutritionist of nearly 30 years.
I have owned and operated my own herbal and wellness business for 16 years. I practice holistic medicine in the wise woman tradition and make herbal remedies. I host a community garden share out of my back yard and run a whole foods co-op.

Kemi Nekvapil.

I am English with Nigerian heritage living in Australia with my husband and two children.
I had been a professional chef and baker around the world on and off for 17 years; specialising in multicultural, vegetarian, organic food for the last 8 years of my career.
Since the birth of my children I decided to become a full time domestic goddess and in the last two years a business owner.
Food Traditions , my business aims to inspire families and communities to create traditions with food. I write, run workshops and give talks on the subject.

My introduction to raw foods was from a book my boyfriend(now husband )bought me 7yrs ago, but it was when I did a raw detox diet for 10 days after I weaned my son, that I knew I had discovered something very powerful.

Our family has a high raw diet, and we also enjoy cooked and baked foods. My aim as a mother is to nourish my children with food and sometimes that is grandma’s rice pudding ,sometimes, discovering the flavours of another land and sometimes, asking for seconds of a green smoothie!

Linda Douglas

Linda Douglas, Ph.D., R.D. is a food scientist and registered dietitian and has an extensive professional background in prebiotics, functional foods, and alternative nutrition. After finding raw foods in 2003, Linda began transitioning herself to a high raw, natural living lifestyle and introducing as much raw food as possible into her family’s meals.

Now a full-time wife and mom to 3 homeschooling children, including an autistic son, Linda is finding that playing with raw food is satisfying, rewarding, and delicious!

The Raw Mom Summit was a real turning point for Linda, and allowed her to see that she could easily blend her training and skills with natural living. Since research, writing, and food experimentation is so much a part of her life, Linda looks forward to doing her thing with raw foods!

Ruth Hofer

A 25 year old Libran who lives in tropical northern Australia, Ruth is excited about sharing her voice and snippets from her beautiful life with rawmom.com readers. She is blessed to share her life with a surfing gypsy husband who as well as being a practicing acupuncturist and musician takes the family to some of the more magical spots on the planet in search of waves.

Settled for the time being in an eco-friendly bush house in the hills behind the Gold Coast, Ruth just gave birth to her second daughter. Living by the ocean fills Ruth’s heart with such joy, and she finds much creative inspiration and spiritual solace in the sea.

Super passionate about nourishing her family with more than just food, Ruth is also a certified yoga instructor and professional artist. You can get a glimpse at some of her more crafty activities at artistruth.etsy.com. A homebirthing, babywearing mama Ruth has been traveling a lot with a baby in tow: living in Indonesia, Tahiti and Canada over the last few years and spending time in California and New Zealand too

We promise to keep you posted on the adventures of these Raw Moms. Keep an eye open, because we’ve got some fabulous releases up our sleeves and as you’ve noticed, a powerful team to make it all happen!

From the multitasking masters and health food renegades with love!