Alex Snodgrass Delights at Junior League of Dallas’ Milestones Luncheon

Looking as radiant as ever at 103 years old, The Junior League of Dallas (JLD) “cultivates women leaders who collectively address the critical needs of the community.” Recently, the organization hosted its largest annual fundraiser of the year, Milestones Luncheon, at Omni Dallas. JLD pours every dollar raised at Milestones directly back into the community through $1 million in annual grants.

The resilient and charming Robin Roberts captivated the audience at last year’s luncheon, detailing her battle with both breast cancer and myelodysplastic syndrome and encouraging the audience to “be bold.” In 2023, Rob Lowe dazzled as the luncheon’s first male keynote speaker.

For this year’s Milestones Luncheon, co-chairs Lauren Combest and Debbie Oates tapped Dallas-based food blogger Alex Snodgrass to serve as the event’s featured speaker. As expected, Snodgrass delighted the audience from the moment she stepped on stage.

I consider Snodgrass, who has authored three The New York Times‘ bestselling cookbooks, as Dallas’ own Homecoming Queen of the Kitchen. Is there a single person in the metroplex who doesn’t own a copy of her debut cookbook, The Defined Dish? Like many, I cooked my way through Snodgrass’ magnum opus during the pandemic. Of the book’s 100 recipes, I tried at least 60 of them. Not one flop among them!

Luncheon emcee Shelly Slater moderated the warm and engaging conversation that covered the lady of the hour’s favorite topic— her love of food! Snodgrass detailed her rapid growth from a food blogger to becoming a The New York Times bestselling author three times… with more cookbooks in development! The influential speaker, who has a passionate and devoted following, also talked about developing her line of dressings and sauces, SideDish, which recently launched at Whole Foods Market locations nationwide. (VIP guests even took home a SideDish; I was thrilled to get my paws on a bottle of the coveted Greek Vinaigrette!) As always, the conversation — which covered everything from motherhood to how growing up in the area influenced Snodgrass — ended with rapid-fire questions that left me craving fajitas from Muchacho (Snodgrass’ favorite “guilty pleasure” in town!).

Before Alex Snodgrass took the stage, JLD awarded its highest annual honor, Sustainer of the Year. A testament to the League’s mission of developing women leaders and community changemakers, this year’s honor went to Peggy Sewell whose legacy of service includes serving on the board of Dallas Museum of Art, MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, and UT Southwestern Medical Center. (Sewell also formerly chaired megawatt Dallas fundraisers Cattle Baron’s Ball and Crystal Charity Ball.) 

In addition to congratulating Sewell, JLD President Tandra Allen spoke about the history of the organization and its impact, saying, “The League has been serving Dallas for more than 100 years, and our mission to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training has been our guiding principle. We have brought countless women together to serve the most critical needs of Dallas, while also developing extraordinary women leaders who uplift and transform communities.”

Looking towards the future, Allen continued, “Today, we celebrate our legacy in Leadership, the remarkable heart of the Junior League, and the impact we’ve made in Dallas for over 103 years. The legacy of the League continues in today’s volunteers as they rise to be the next generation of women leaders to impact Dallas.”

Nearly 4,000 members contribute 100,000 volunteer hours across 36 partnering agencies and organization-run signature projects. Clearly, the Junior League of Dallas knows the recipe for success. 

PC Spotted: Sally Dutter, Lydia Novakov, Isabell Novakov Higginbotham, Lynn McBee, Patti Flowers, Connie O’Neill, Debbie Scripps, Alli Eagan, Sally Pretorius Hodge, Nancy Gopez, Susan Sarich, Erin Mathews, Diana Hamilton, Cheryl Joyner, Julie Bagley, Capera Ryan, Deborah Ryan, and Linda Custard.