Our Story

As a parent of three children I was constantly fending off the sugar pushed to my children. My two-year-old was given a lollipop bigger than her as a “reward”for her first haircut from the hairdresser. This is wrong! She loved her first haircut and wouldn’t  it have been better to have a certificate that she would treasure and put on her wall advertising the hairdresser rather than a 2 minute sugar rush never to be thought about again. There must be a better way….the Rewards project. Everyone wants recognition but it doesn’t need to be food or sweets to motivate people.

Meet the Team

James Goolnik

James Goolnik

BDS MSc- founder

James Goolnik is a practicing dentist with a Masters degree in Conservative dentistry. A member of the British Dental Association and a Dental Phobia certified dentist, James was previously President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is a judge for both the Dental Industry Awards and the Dentistry Awards and he lectures internationally on work / life balance in dentistry. Twice listed in Private Dentistry’s poll of the top 20 Elite Dentists in the UK in 2011 and 2012, James has also been voted the most influential person in dentistry in the UK in 2011 and 2012 by the trade magazine, Dentistry. His book ‘Brush’ published in 2011 is a number one best seller on Amazon and all the profits are channelled to the charity, Dentaid. The funds help equip and train a hospital dental surgery in addition to financing a mobile clinic in Malawi. James is also the Founder of the Bow Lane Dental Group in  London. Having worked in the same practice for over 17 years, he has witnessed first hand how sugar damages teeth on a daily basis. He is married with three children and recently launched The Rewards Project, a charity dedicated to transforming the rewards culture. His mission is to change the way society rewards children with sugar for healthier alternatives.

Dr. Joanne McCormack

General Practitioner

Joanne is a registered doctor, retired GP and was for many years a Safeguarding children’s doctor. In her role as a safeguarding GP, she saw the irony of thwarting all sorts of child abuse but accepting and turning a blind eye to the harm caused by unnecessary sugary drinks and ultra-processed foods. We all need safe food, so she encourages whole families and communities to change their lifestyles and not just an individual with obesity or diabetes. Not everyone gets overweight, but a diet that is not nutritious enough, or one that contains toxins like sugar, harms each of us eventually. No-one wants to harm their child, so she recommends Rewards Project and her website www.fatismyfriend.co.uk as a safer and considered way forward.

Lynda Shaw

Dr. Lynda Shaw

BSc, MRes, PhD- Neuroscientist

Lynda holds a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience, specialising in unconscious processing of emotion and behavioural change. She works with senior leaders and their teams who want to better understand the science and art of embracing change and harness this power through heightened awareness of how their brain works, limiting beliefs and how the brain changes behaviour and behaviour changes the brain. She is founder of the Neuroscience Professional Development Programme designed to help professional people use applied neuroscience in their work. A regular presenter and speaker, Lynda is also a registered chartered psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a Fellow and President Elect of the Professional Speakers Association, holder of the prestigious Professional Speaker Association award for Excellence, a Forbes contributor as well as an entrepreneur and author of adult and children’s books. Charity work has included voluntary social work for the elderly, working on committees for the NSPCC and RNLI and as an ambassador for The Children’s Society and Progeria. She is proud to be part of the Reward Project team. Her mantra, Be In Control, Get A Grip, it’s easier than you think. Adventure travel has been a major part of her life and she is driven to try to understand why people from all over the world do what they do. Lynda’s work is always informative, fun and extremely practical.

Jenny Phillips

MBA BSc (Hons) mBANT- Nutritional Therapist

Jenny Philips is a science-based Nutritional Therapist. She helped me to truly understand what happens inside the body once you swallow sugar and she helped to co-write two of the chapters in this book. Her transition into nutrition was the result of her own journey of recovering from a cancer diagnosis in 2003. She published her first book Eat to Outsmart Cancer in 2015.
Her second book The Diabetes Weight-loss Cookbook was co-authored with Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi and Dr David Unwin. Jenny is also a qualified yoga teacher.

Video
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Our Trustees

James Goolnik

James Goolnik

BDS MSc- founder

James Goolnik is a practicing dentist with a Masters degree in Conservative dentistry. A member of the British Dental Association and a Dental Phobia certified dentist, James was previously President of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is a judge for both the Dental Industry Awards and the Dentistry Awards and he lectures internationally on work / life balance in dentistry. Twice listed in Private Dentistry’s poll of the top 20 Elite Dentists in the UK in 2011 and 2012, James has also been voted the most influential person in dentistry in the UK in 2011 and 2012 by the trade magazine, Dentistry. His book ‘Brush’ published in 2011 is a number one best seller on Amazon and all the profits are channelled to the charity, Dentaid. The funds help equip and train a hospital dental surgery in addition to financing a mobile clinic in Malawi. James is also the Founder of the Bow Lane Dental Group in  London. Having worked in the same practice for over 17 years, he has witnessed first hand how sugar damages teeth on daily basis. He is married with three children and recently launched The Rewards Project, a charity dedicated to transforming the rewards culture. His mission is to change the way society rewards children with sugar for healthier alternatives.

Giancarlo Caldesi

Chef and Founder of Caldesi Group. Giancarlo owns two restaurants along with his wife Katie – Caffé Caldesi in Marylebone and Caldesi in Campagna in Bray. Katie and Giancarlo have become regulars on Market Kitchen, BBC Masterchef, BBC Breakfast, Saturday Kitchen and C4’s Sunday Brunch and have written over a dozen cookbooks. When Giancarlo was diagnosed with diabetes type 2 in 2016 he cut sugar from his diet and adopted a low-carb lifestyle that resulted in him losing 3 stone and reversing his symptoms. So successful was his change of diet that the recipes he and his with Katie developed have been turned into their latest book ‘The Diabetes Weight-loss Cookbook’. He teaches wheat-free, low-sugar and veg-packed dishes at his cookery school, La Cucina Caldesi. He has two children.

Louise Bentata

Louise Bentata has provided marketing strategy and market insights to a range of businesses as part of Aberdare Consulting since setting up the business in 2011. Louise has extensive experience in general management, marketing and market insights consulting experience in manufacturing, retail, consumer goods, healthcare, software development and FMCG. Before that, Louise spent five years at Johnson & Johnson developing Global and European marketing strategy and three years at L’Oreal implementing UK marketing. Louise has an MBA from INSEAD and an MA Geography from Cambridge University.
Beyond the Rewards Project, Louise has a particular interest in increasing the sports participation rate of girls in British schools. She is also a mentor to current INSEAD students to help make effective career decisions. In addition, Louise is a Governor of the ALC school in London. She has three children.

Alison Goolnik

Alison Goolnik trained as a chartered accountant and currently works as Finance Director at Bow Lane Limited. Previous to that, she spent five years as Financial Controller at the Roof Gardens, London and six years at Environmental Resources Management. Alison also studied for a BSc in Psychology and holds a Master’s Degree in Psychotherapy. She is currently a director for Apples and Honey Nightingale, the first UK intergenerational nursery and is a counsellor for the charity Place2Be. She is passionate about healthy eating and using healthly rewards for children and is the treasurer for the Rewards Project. Alison has one daughter and two step children.

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