Mendek Rubin was a Holocaust survivor and brilliant inventor who helped revolutionize the jewelry manufacturing industry, generating numerous patents in the 1960s and 1970s. After he retired from the jewelry business, he invented the equipment to wash and package baby greens for Earthbound Farm—the first company to successfully market ready-to-eat salads for retail sale. Mendek also applied his genius to his own psyche, creating innovative ways to overcome the trauma of the Holocaust and live a truly joyous life. He is the author of two books: Why Not Now, a book of poems and prose, and I Am Small, I Am Big: The Way We Choose to Live, a book about positive thinking written for children. A self-taught artist and nature photographer, Mendek died in September 2012 in Carmel Valley, California, at the age of eighty-seven.

Myra Goodman is a well-known pioneer in the world of organic food and farming, and is the author of three cookbooks.In 1984, she and her husband, Drew, founded Earthbound Farm, which became the largest grower of organic produce in the world. The Goodmans have been credited with helping to bring organic food to the mainstream, and Myra was one of four farmers chosen by the James Beard Foundation and US Department of State to represent the United States in a prominent “conversations” video at the entrance to the US pavilion at the 2015 World’s Fair. She has appeared on national television shows, including Oprah, Regis & Kelly,and Good Morning America, and has been featured in hundreds of publications, including People magazine, the Costco Connection, More, Forbes,The New York Times, and AARP. Myra and Drew have two grown children and continue to live on their original farm in Carmel Valley with their two yellow labs, Oscar and Henry.