This year marks our 35th anniversary of helping people and communities improve the quality of their lives through health education.

Like many nonprofits, C.H.E.F. started small, fueled more by passion than dollars. A handful of early volunteers quickly made our vision a reality, and we grew into an organization with a respected staff and a vision for the future.

We share our success with the many individuals and organizations that have been instrumental in helping us pursue C.H.E.F.'s mission. Below is a brief, decade-by-decade history of our organization. Read on to learn how C.H.E.F. has been a leader, innovator, and pioneer in health education for nearly four decades.

1970's

C.H.E.F. was incorporated on October 2, 1974, as a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of health through education. Our first venture into publishing came with Here's Looking at You®, a drug prevention and education curriculum.

1980's

C.H.E.F.'s innovative curricula sold well, and we invested excess revenue in an endowment fund that was established by the board of directors in 1981. By 1986, this fund had reached $1 million.

Following up on our earlier successes, C.H.E.F. released several new curricula in the '80s, including Natural Helpers® and Here's Looking at AIDS and You™ (later retitled Get Real about AIDS®).

In 1989, C.H.E.F. developed and hosted the First Northwest Wellness Conference for Seniors.

C.H.E.F.'s work began to earn nationwide recognition in the '80s. In 1983, the first Health Education Leadership Award was presented to founding C.H.E.F. board member Marjorie Griffin. Two years later, First Lady Nancy Reagan visited Island Elementary School in Mercer Island, WA, to observe a class using Here's Looking at You, Two®.

1990's

In 1994, C.H.E.F. released Get Real about Violence®, a comprehensive violence-prevention program. In 1997, we released Get Real about Tobacco®.

The 1990’s saw C.H.E.F. forging new partnerships with other like-minded organizations. In 1995, the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse awarded C.H.E.F. a two-year contract to coordinate the state substance-abuse prevention conference.

Also during this time, C.H.E.F. was busy hosting a number of major health education events, including the First Annual National Prevention Institute (later renamed the National Prevention Symposium™) in 1996, the 20th Annual Washington State Health Education Conference in 1999, and the 10th Annual Northwest Wellness Conference for Seniors in 1999.

2000's

In 2000, we launched the Institutes on School Health and Fitness in partnership with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Association of Washington School Principals.

Between 2001-2004, we released several new curricula, including Calming Ourselves in Stressful Moments™, an interactive training program that helps early childhood caregivers, teachers, parents, and children manage stress; Healthy Beginnings™, a training for childcare providers; Rx for Communication®, a program designed to help older adults get the most from their health care providers; Social Beginnings®, a program to encourage prosocial skills in early childhood; Youth Matters®, a modular discussion-based prevention program for creating healthy schools and communities; the FUEL™ series, the first youth-inspired educational approach to fighting the obesity epidemic affecting America’s youth today; and the Chill™ series, a product that empowers teens in grades 7–12 to recognize the stress in their lives and manage it effectively.

In April 2005, we announced that Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, Inc., acquired intellectual property rights for six of our school-aged youth prevention products. This sale allowed for expanded reach of these highly respected curriculum programs into schools using the latest in video streaming technology. It also gave us the opportunity to expand our mission-focused work, continue to give back to the communities we serve within Washington state and nationally, and develop new educational products and programs.

We ended 2005 with the launch of MissionWise®, the division of C.H.E.F. that provides consulting, mentoring, and training to help health and human services organizations recognize and capitalize on their strengths, become stronger and more sustainable, and maximize impact in their efforts to reduce and prevent health inequities.

In 2007, based on a tremendous need for health and prevention education among our country’s underserved populations, we announced an evolution in our focus designed to concentrate our resources on health education to help prevent and reduce major health inequities across ethnic, racial, and income groups. This would be accomplished in two ways: through our MissionWise division; and through our newly established grantmaking program that was initiated in Clark, Pierce, and Spokane counties within Washington State to support organizations and projects seeking to create an equal opportunity for health.

In 2008, we launched Health Equity Partners™, the division of C.H.E.F. that creates healthy opportunities for people most affected by health inequities through advocacy, education, grantmaking, and partnerships. Our focus is on establishing public housing developments as model healthy communities where it is the norm for people to be physically active, eat healthy, know and connect with their neighbors, and advocate for change in the systems and policies that affect their community.

With a history of innovation, leadership, and success in our mission-focused work, C.H.E.F. has directly benefited the health and well-being of millions of people. As we look to the future, we're committed to helping millions more in the coming years.