Building a Sustainable Nutrition & Wellness System for the Village of Maywood
Strategic Consulting, Organizational Design & Program Development Proposal. A coordinated municipal model that unites four civic facilities, three specialized program coordinators, and a measurable path toward community health equity.
"Move from a broad collection of responsibilities and program ideas to a coordinated system with defined leadership, clear accountability, appropriate staffing, and replicable civic impact."
— NūFORM Center for Nutrition
Unifying Maywood's 4 Civic Facilities Into an Interconnected System
The Village's Nutrition & Wellness Manager job description identifies four distinct physical assets. Rather than spreading one person thin, NūFORM designs tailored operating models and dedicated coordination for each site.
Food Is Medicine Café
Nutrition-centered food service, culinary education & community gathering
Site Mission & Civic Focus
Serves as the central anchor for nutrition-focused food service, clinical food-is-medicine integration, healthy culinary demonstrations, and practical food literacy for Maywood families.
Key Potential Development Areas
Operational Considerations to Address During Consulting
- •Determining sustainable service model & daily operating hours
- •Establishing food cost controls, equipment needs & safety standards
- •Balancing subsidized community access with financial sustainability
Why A Solo Manager Cannot Execute All 4 Sites Alone
Operating a commercial café, coordinating after-school youth cooking classes, managing municipal crisis response referrals, and incubating food entrepreneurs require vastly different schedules, technical credentials, and licensing. NūFORM designs the operational connective tissue.
Building a Team Around the Nutrition & Wellness Manager
Leadership Rather Than Solo Execution. A central recommendation of this proposal is that Maywood move from a solo-manager bottleneck to a structured leadership team with specialized coordinators.
Why the Solo-Manager Model Fails
Expecting a single Nutrition & Wellness Manager to simultaneously run café commercial operations, teach youth classes, plan senior screenings, handle crisis response, and foster business incubators is a recipe for burn-out and operational failure. A coordinated team structure guarantees accountability and measurable success.
Mayor Nathaniel George Booker & Village Council (Board of Trustees)
Policy direction, budget authorization, alignment with Healthy Maywood | West Cook (HMWC), and civic stewardship for Maywood's 23,000+ residents.
Talae Perry, MBA, SPHR — Director of Human Resources
Leads HR collaboration on the organizational and staffing model, advises on job descriptions, classifications, hiring processes, and employment requirements, and coordinates departmental integration (Parks & Rec, Public Works, Community Engagement, Fire/Police) and operational supervision for the Village of Maywood.
Nutrition & Wellness Manager
Translates Council policy into cross-hub operations, supervises specialized coordinators, monitors KPI dashboards, and reports directly to Municipal Leadership.
- •1 solo manager managing 4 physical locations across Maywood
- •Responsible for café operations, K–12 teaching, senior care & crisis hub
- •Result: Operational burn-out, delayed site launches & unmeasured outcomes
- ✓1 Strategic Manager focused on leadership, budget, and cross-site strategy
- ✓3 Specialized Coordinators managing café operations, youth & senior wellness
- ✓Result: Clear accountability, daily execution rigor & long-term sustainability
Three Specialized Program Coordinators (+ Potential 4th)
Select a coordinator to examine their specialized scope, key responsibilities, and strategic partners.
Coordinator 1: Food Access, Café & Culinary Operations
Primary Location Focus: Site 1 (1100 S. 11th Ave) & Village-wide food access
Core Purpose & Focus
Translates the Food Is Medicine vision into daily culinary standards, quality controls, kitchen workflows, and food security initiatives.
Key Scope & Responsibilities
Key Institutional Partners
Six Comprehensive Scopes of Work
The engagement is structured to deliver concrete municipal assets, operational playbooks, and organizational frameworks that guarantee lasting community health impact.
Discovery, Needs Assessment & Leadership Alignment
Establish baseline operational realities, audit existing municipal assets, engage department heads, and align governance expectations.
Strategic Consulting Activities
- In-depth review of original Nutrition & Wellness Manager job specs and budget commitments
- Stakeholder interviews with HR Director, Mayor of Maywood, Trustees, and department directors
- Onsite facility audits of all 4 designated municipal properties to assess physical readiness
- Identify operational gaps, resource dependencies, and critical short-term vs long-term priorities
Primary Tangible Deliverables
- Discovery & Needs-Assessment Executive Report
- Stakeholder & Resource Asset Map
- Four-Site Operational Readiness & Gap Analysis
- Agreed Engagement Priorities & Governance Cadence
Ten-Month Implementation Roadmap
The engagement proceeds across five deliberate two-month phases, aligning governance, organizational design, partnership formalization, implementation pilots, and operational handoff.
Discovery & Leadership Alignment
Key Focus & Strategic Activities
Expected Outputs & Deliverables
Proposed Consulting Investment: $60,000
10-month engagement at an average of $6,000 per month, tied directly to five tangible deliverables and leadership review milestones.
Covers strategic consulting, organizational design, 4-site operating models, coordinator job design, SOP library, partnership roadmap, and replication playbooks.
Payments are linked to measurable milestones. Funds are only disbursed upon leadership review and formal acceptance of each deliverable package.
Establishes grant-ready structures to unlock hospital community-benefit grants (Loyola, Cook County Health), federal nutrition funding, and workforce appropriations.
Milestone-Driven Fee Schedule
Clear schedule connecting disbursements to approved outputs.
Contract execution, initial stakeholder consultations, site audits, and establishment of governance cadence.
Delivery of Needs Assessment Summary, Stakeholder Asset Map, Site Readiness Audits, and agreed strategic priorities.
Delivery of 4-site strategic plan, proposed organizational chart, 3 coordinator role descriptions, and RACI matrix.
Delivery of institutional partnership strategy, site operating frameworks, SOP library outlines, and pilot program workflows.
Final consolidation of all program playbooks, dashboard deployment, staff knowledge transfer, and Village Board presentation.
What Is Included in NūFORM's $60,000 Consulting Scope
- ✓All 6 Scopes of Work detailed in the approved strategic proposal
- ✓Comprehensive site audits of all 4 municipal facilities
- ✓Drafting role charters, competency rubrics, and hiring profiles for coordinators
- ✓SOP library outlines for café operations, food safety, and youth programs
- ✓Healthcare and civic partnership outreach collateral and MOU templates
- ✓Village Board executive dashboards and knowledge-transfer handoff sessions
Operational Clarifications & Municipal Exclusions
- •Does not include municipal employee salaries, benefits, or union pensions
- •Does not include wholesale food inventory, produce orders, or pantry stock
- •Does not include commercial kitchen capital equipment purchases or physical facility renovations
- •Does not include ongoing daily line-cooking, facility janitorial, or permanent staffing
- •The Village of Maywood retains sole authority over hiring, budgets, and municipal policy
Sadeek Colquitt, CPBN
Proven executive background in building municipal systems, transitioning public school meal programs to plant-based models, food manufacturing operations, and community-centered wellness education.
Synthesizing Culinary Operations, School Systems & Municipal Wellness
Sadeek Colquitt, CPBN, is a visionary leader, systems architect, and educator with a proven track record of developing and executing strategic initiatives that transform nutritional landscapes through intelligently designed wellness programs. With 20+ years of client-centered practice synthesized with 100 years of peer-reviewed research, Sadeek bridges medical insight, culinary operational rigor, school system reform, and cultural relevance to build scalable, sustainable community health models.
Pioneered transition of Academy for Global Citizenship to a 75% plant-based menu and taught K–8 Teaching Kitchen curriculum.
Founded Edenic Soy & Tofu (FDA regulated, 70+ clients) and co-directed Taste of Vegan™ (6,000+ attendees, $250k+ revenue).
Founder & CEO
Visionary leader and educator developing and executing strategic initiatives to transform nutritional landscapes through intelligently designed wellness programs focused on mitigating the top ten lifestyle diseases.
- Leads strategic planning, program design, and implementation targeting hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune disorders.
- Authored 'The Definition of Food' and 'Intelligent Design Nutrition™', synthesizing 20+ years of practice with 100 years of peer-reviewed research.
- Developed and launched 'Food-ish: The New Definition of Food & How to Create a Disease-Free Life' transformative seminar.
- Designed and implemented 30/60/90-day protocols for clients seeking to prevent or reverse chronic lifestyle conditions.
- Creator and lead facilitator of 'My Nutrition Partner: A Health Assurance Program', featuring 'My Virtual Blue Zone' culturally affirming wellness community.
- Facilitates educational seminars for healthcare providers, community health organizations, educational institutions, and faith-based institutions.
Plant-Based Program Coordinator
Strategic program leader responsible for pioneering the integration of plant-based nutrition into a progressive educational institution's culture, curriculum, and operational systems.
- Led strategic planning and cross-departmental collaboration to transition school meal program to a 75% plant-based menu alongside culinary staff and consultants.
- Directed internal and external communications to cultivate understanding, reduce resistance, and foster community engagement around wellness culture.
- Founded and chaired the school's inaugural School Food Advisory Board, establishing inclusive decision-making processes, food norms, and SOPs.
- Designed and delivered comprehensive nutrition education across administrators, educators, students (K–8), and families.
- Developed and facilitated 'Nutri-Tuesdays', a dynamic after-school program for families focused on hands-on cooking activities and wellness education.
- Designed lesson plans and taught the school's first Teaching Kitchen & Nutrition Curriculum for 4th and 5th grade students.
Co-Owner, Director & Advisory Board Chair
Co-owned and chaired one of the Midwest's largest and most culturally significant plant-based community events, blending strategic leadership, community engagement, and wellness education.
- Directed strategic growth and operations of Taste of Vegan™ Chicago, welcoming 6,000+ attendees annually as the largest African American-owned single-day vegan festival in the Midwest.
- Spearheaded all branding, media development, digital presence, and marketing strategy, increasing reach and sponsorship potential.
- Managed end-to-end planning for 70+ vendors, 10+ performers, workshop facilitators, volunteers, and staff, circulating over $250,000 in community-based revenue.
- Chaired advisory board, ensuring mission alignment, sustainability, and innovative wellness programming.
Project Manager
Strategically led multidisciplinary project management initiatives for clients across food, wellness, education, and real estate sectors, delivering tailored, outcome-oriented strategies.
- Directed full-cycle project management for notable clients including Soul Vegan Foods, The Black Mall Group, Eating to Live, Awakenings Chicago, R&N Asset Management, East Lake Management, The Intelligence Group LLC, and University of Illinois at Chicago.
- Developed and implemented tailored strategies for product launches, brand expansion, campaigns, and organizational restructuring.
- Led planning and oversight spanning new product development, program design, brand repositioning, and infrastructure optimization.
Owner & Director of Operations / Production
Founded and led a regional soy-based food manufacturing company, overseeing all aspects of business development, production, and operations.
- Secured $200K in development funding and acquired an existing facility to launch plant-based manufacturing serving 70+ retail and wholesale clients across IL, IN, and IA.
- Directed company operations including team leadership, regulatory compliance, FDA inspections, financial systems, production workflows, and quality control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clarity on scope, fees, HR collaboration, clinical boundaries, and replicability.
Appointing a single manager without an organizational framework or specialized coordinators leads to immediate burnout and site neglect. The 10-month engagement designs the operational infrastructure, site playbooks, and funding strategy so new hires step into clear, high-performing systems.
No. The $60,000 consulting fee covers NūFORM's strategic planning, organizational design, coordinator job drafting, RACI modeling, SOP library creation, partnership cultivation, and performance dashboards. Municipal staff salaries, food costs, and equipment remain separate Village investments.
NūFORM collaborates directly with the Director of HR to analyze job descriptions, establish realistic salary bands, structure coordinator competencies, and align recommendations with Village civil service, procurement, and union rules.
Maywood represents many historic Midwest communities with existing civic assets (café space, fraternal buildings, crisis centers) seeking to address food security and chronic health disparities. By standardizing the operating models across 4 distinct facility types, Maywood can publish a landmark municipal playbook.
NūFORM's framework strictly adheres to clinical boundaries. Non-clinical staff provide evidence-based nutrition education and healthy food access; all diagnostic assessments, medical screenings, and clinical treatment are performed by licensed healthcare partners (e.g., Loyola Medicine, Cook County Health).
Bring This Vision to the Maywood Board of Trustees
Schedule a confidential working session with Sadeek Colquitt, CPBN, to review this proposal with the Mayor of Maywood, Director of HR, and department leadership.
NūFORM Center for Nutrition
Strategic Consulting • Organizational Design • Nutrition Program Development
- Direct Office Line(312) 847-5018
- Proposal & Scheduling Emailnuformcenter@gmail.com
- Serving The Village of Maywood & Proviso TownshipMaywood, Illinois 60153
- Response WindowWithin 2 Business Days — Mon–Fri, 9AM–6PM CT
Recommended Next Step for the Village of Maywood
Authorize a 90-minute discovery session with the Mayor of Maywood and Director of Human Resources to confirm scope alignment and finalize the consulting contract.