Meet The Team
Obe earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He worked for over 12 years in the nonprofit sector, including 7 years at The Colorado Symphony. Together, Obe & Whitney owned and operated their Denver restaurant, The Preservery, for nearly seven years before pivoting into the nonprofit sector with The Preservery Foundation in 2022. Obe is also a 200hr Certified Yoga Teacher, a Personal Trainer, and he turned his lifelong passion for cars into an informative social media platform with over 16K followers called I Would Buy This Ride. He keeps the wheels on at The Preservery Foundation every week, organizing volunteers, making and distributing food, tirelessly tending to the community garden during growing season, and so much more work behind the scenes. Look for him at car shows all across the country, taking a leisurely mountain drive, or spending time with his daughter, Adira.
Dr. Obe Ariss, Founder & CEO
Whitney Ariss, Founder & Communications Director
Whitney studied Vocal Performance at the University of Colorado at Boulder before deciding to quit school and work with food. She has almost two decades of experience in food service, from restaurant line cook to personal chef to coffee shop manager, lastly working as marketing director for Marczyk Fine Foods, a beloved neighborhood grocer in Denver. In 2016 she opened The Preservery restaurant in Five Points with her partner in (almost) everything, Obe. She started the Giving Meals initiative during the pandemic, when Denver saw a huge surge in people experiencing homelessness. Eventually they decided to dedicate themselves to hunger relief full time and started The Preservery Foundation in 2022. She is passionate about feeding people as well as helping people to heal through her work as a 500hr Certified Yoga Teacher and Reiki Master