An extraordinary event makes
history at The Institutes

Michael Harris who organized the event on behalf of “It Takes a Village” welcomes Theo Ratliffe, 76ers NBA All-Star and Villanova’s Tyler Perkins

This week we teamed up with the nonprofit It Takes a Village to Feed One Child and several of Philadelphia’s best known and loved world class athletes to welcome participants from all over the Philadelphia area to our campus. Former Sixers NBA All-Star, Theo Ratliff and Jumaine Jones and Villanova’s Tyler Perkins. Mark Wainright, Founder of It Takes A Village and Janet Doman, Director of The Institutes were on the panel. Well-known media personality, Quincy Jones, joined us to moderate.

The speakers are poised and ready to take questions

Our purpose was to talk about children who do not have a consistent source of food and how that might affect the growth and development of the brain. It Takes a Village to Feed One Child is a Philadelphia based non-profit dedicated to addressing food insecurity across the Tri State region (PA-NJ-DE). They provide over 250,000 nutritious meals to 100 at-risk centers. Our world class athletes provided insight not only from their experience as athletes but often from their own upbringing.

Janet Doman and Mark Wainwright discuss feeding our hungry kids and our hurt kids

The event featured a reception where we sampled a wide variety of carefully curated appetizers that were chosen because each supplied a rich source of nutrients for the brain.

Chef Jennifer begins what will be almost 3 days of careful preparations.

Chef Anthony makes the careful preparations to chill and store the vegetables

The team is coming to the finishing line and is ready for the guests. Bernard Parker, Founder of Impact Ark Advisors, who sponsored the event, is satisfied – wait don’t these chefs look remarkably like our own clinical staff?

The Vegetarian Table – Beautiful five-star food

Every bite – delicious and nutritious

The event was sponsored by Impact Ark, a social impact advisory delivering breakthrough results for mission-driven non-profits. Founder, Bernard Parker, says “This event embodies our shared commitment to advancing brain nutrition for all.”

Nexus Kitchens, a co-sponsor launched in 2025 with menus engineered on 70 years of brain development research from The Institutes. No compromises. Just food that feeds how you think.

Family photo: Janet Doman, Susan Aisen, Ruth Allman with our violinist and cellist for the event International School graduates Priscilla & Joshua Allman. Priscilla just graduated from Medical School this week.

It was a gorgeous day on our beautiful campus. Guests lingered well after the event to talk and share their experiences.

As the event ended in the Valentine Auditorium, Janet Doman noted that after 71 years of welcoming parents and professionals from over 100 nations it always saddened us that our own city never came to the party. Today was different over 100 people came to this party and virtually every one of them was a Philadelphian.

This was the first time.

But it will not be the last. The next event is already being planned.