Wise Ways Cooking School

Hannah with her son, Oliver, who has been raised on traditional foods including cultured raw dairy, bone broths, pastured eggs, sauerkraut, and cod liver oil

Hannah Springer, MS, HHC, is co-founder and President of Wise Ways Cooking School. She holds a Bachelor's in Social Work from SUNY Albany, and a Master's in Social Policy from Columbia University. She received her training as a holistic health consultant at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in Manhattan, and is certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. 

Hannah offers health and nutrition consultations for women and families with babies and young children, as well as an array of nutrient-dense traditional foods products. More information is at www.EarthBodyBalance.com.

It was in 2008, a few months after the birth of her son, that Hannah discovered the Weston A. Price Foundation and principles of traditional foods, including raw milk, bone broths, lactofermentation, and healthy fats. At the time she had a thyroid disorder, blood sugar imbalances, and various other health problems, and was seeking ways to heal her body naturally. After one year spent making a radical change in her diet, Hannah was no longer able to tolerate the thyroid drugs, her blood sugar levels were consistent and stable throughout the day (without snacking between meals!), and all the other issues that had been a "normal" part of life for years were completely gone or greatly decreased. In addition, her son was thriving and robust. Hannah's health transformation and everything she learned from this incredible experience is the inspiration for the work she does.

Hannah is a passionate advocate for a diet based on nourishing seasonal foods from local family farmers and fishers. She serves as Brooklyn chapter co-leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation and leads the parents' group of the Traditional Nutrition Guild, a support and education group for families and parents-to-be who seek to raise their children on a traditional-foods diet. Hannah is the founder and site coordinator of the Bay Ridge/Sunset Park delivery for the Traditional Foods Club, and manages Bay Ridge drop-offs for deliveries from Raindance Organic Farm. She lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with her husband, Hugo Corvera, and their 3-year-old son, Oliver. They anticipate the birth of their second child, Weston, early in December 2011.

Hannah's personal blog, which includes recipes, family updates, health information, and reflections is titled the Healthy Family Chronicles. Hannah can be reached by calling (718) 490-2839 or by email at Hannah[at]WiseWaysCookingSchool.com.

Hannah Springer and Angela Davis joined forces in spring of 2010 to launch Wise Ways Cooking School to address the need for traditional real foods cooking instruction based on the dietary principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation, in NYC and the surrounding area. In our modern world of dietary pyramids, nutritionism, eating disorders, thousands of supplements, "food-like substances," and epidemic chronic disease, their message was simple: real nutrient-dense foods, properly prepared, and grounded in the ancient dietary wisdom of healthy traditional cultures from around the world.

Through the programs at Wise Ways Cooking School we strive to bring back a sense of peace, gratitude, awareness, enjoyment, and responsibility to the daily joy and burden that so clearly defines who we are: what we eat and how we eat it. At the heart of our message and philosophy is the profound economic, environmental, and nutritional importance of a diet based in local, seasonal, sustainable foods from family farms. As Wendell Berry wrote, "We have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free."

Angela Davis no longer teaches with the school, but can be reached through her private practice website, Nourishing Works.