The Lunchmakers

Your Lunchmakers: Michelle and Sumner

Michelle Gray has worked with food for over twenty years. She has done everything from managing a busy bagel shop to serving fine dining in some of the best restaurants in the country. Her passion to make healthy lunches started when working on an organic farm outside Greeneville, TN. She tenderly grew the food and then designed farm to table meals for visitors. Michelle's two hungry girls are homeschooled. She saw that they would get tired of eating the same thing and she was tired of making it. So, for the past four years, she began experimenting with healthy and tastier and more surprising meals.

Sumner Gray has always wanted to open a restaurant with Michelle for as long as he can remember. But since she saw firsthand how hard it is to run a restaurant, she refused. Laughing Sprouts was as close as he could get – a loophole if you will – and everyday he is surprised he slipped this by her. Sumner is infatuated with sneaking healthy ingredients into mainstream foods and seeing if anyone can tell. He has a long history activism with social justice causes and he envisions Laughing Sprouts helping countless people down the road. He sees business as an opportunity to change the world.

Michelle and Sumner live outside Chattanooga on Sassafras Farms with their two daughters Phoenix and Amaya. They recently celebrated 15 years of happy marriage.