{"id":2447304,"date":"2019-08-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=310903"},"modified":"2019-08-08T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T11:00:00","slug":"food-matters-alice-waters-is-on-quest-to-make-school-lunch-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/food-matters-alice-waters-is-on-quest-to-make-school-lunch-grow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Matters: Alice Waters is on quest to make school lunch grow up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Alice Waters<\/strong>
Photo by Amanda Marsalis<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

When Alice Waters sees the future, no child is scared of the school cafeteria. Whether because of bland, unhealthy food or fear of shame about not having money to pay for lunch \u2014 issues that plague public schools across the United States.<\/p>\n

In 1995, the acclaimed chef-owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, celebrated author and food activist founded The Edible Schoolyard Project, launching a program of \u201cedible education\u201d at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. Waters built an organic garden and kitchen classroom and discovered that when kids actively participate in growing and preparing food, they actually consume \u2014 and enjoy! \u2014 nutritious, balanced meals. Her mission: to create free school lunch for every child from kindergarten through 12th grade across the country.<\/p>\n

Now the Edible Schoolyard has trained hundreds of teachers, administrators, food service staff, nutritionists, community leaders and parents of kids who attend 367 schools worldwide, representing more than 1 million students in 42 U.S. states. Locally, The Edible Schoolyard Project engages some 500 students at the Aspen Community School, 1,000 students at Aspen Elementary School\u2019s Magical Garden, and 500 children and adults though the Aspen Honeybee Guild.<\/p>\n

On July 22, Waters spoke about her work during an Aspen Institute presentation at Paepcke Auditorium, aptly titled \u201cLunch is an Academic Subject.\u201d Here are a few choice kernels of her wisdom.<\/p>\n

Montessori training inspired Chez Panisse \u2014 and the Edible Schoolyard Project<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an education of the senses \u2026 I was looking for taste. I didn\u2019t think I was using all of those Montessori ideas, but I was in the way I ran Chez Panisse. I wanted everybody to taste everything. Compare this grape with that grape.<\/p>\n

(Maria) Montessori worked a hundred years ago in the slums of Naples (Italy) and in India with children who were hungry in neighborhoods that were very, very poor. She had huge success because she was teaching practical life exercises and opening their senses, which are pathways to our minds. She was having (kids) smelling and tasting and creating a beautiful classroom. She made it a desirable place to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast food is a cult \u2014 SAVE THE KIDS<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we teach Slow Food values in a fast-food culture? I decided the best way to do this is through our last truly democratic institution: the public school system. We can reach every child when they\u2019re young, and feed them these values.<\/p>\n

When you eat fast food, you digest the values that come with it: It\u2019s OK to eat in your car. Time is money. More is better. Everything should be available 24-7. Cooking is drudgery. Farming is drudgery. It\u2019s OK to be a little dishonest. It\u2019s OK to be greedy. We\u2019ve digested this, accepted this. I think it\u2019s hard to reach people when they\u2019re addicted, when they\u2019re in these habits. Eighty-five percent of the kids in this country don\u2019t eat one meal with family!\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice Waters went Dumpster diving to discover how bad school lunch really is<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to see what they ate before school. It was coffee cups and candy bars and fast food trash! Kids would scrape off, right into the garbage, anything that was a vegetable. They kept the meat and fries. Huge waste goes on in the schools.<\/p>\n

I was principal for a day at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley right at the beginning of the project. Out of 1,000 kids, maybe a third brought (food) from home. Out of that third, maybe 5% brought something I thought was good. A lot of bagels and cream cheese, things in bags. Then there were a whole group of kids who didn\u2019t eat at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids waste less food when they grow and prepare it themselves<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been practicing this at MLKJ Middle School for all these years: when kids are growing it and cooking it, they eat it all. It\u2019s the empowerment and pride in having grown it and cooked it. Every kid who graduates from that school could probably give a TED Talk; they have learned from osmosis. When you\u2019re going out for a math class, you might be planting seeds, but you\u2019re picking raspberries while you\u2019re out there. You\u2019re in nature. There isn\u2019t a kid who wants to miss a class in the garden or the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

School lunch can teach kids about world culture<\/p>\n

\u201c(The Edible Schoolyard Project) has developed into a much bigger idea. This is one of the placemats from a geography class: We\u2019re learning about what grows in the Arabian Peninsula, at what altitude, sea level. Where it is in relationship to Asia and Africa. This might be something served for lunch: falafel and pita bread, carrot salad. You might be studying India and what foods they took on the Silk Road: curry in a chapatti with raita on the side. In a \u2018Civilizations of the Americas\u2019 class: tortilla soup, maybe jicama or radishes. When (kids) know about the culture a little bit they are very curious. And they are empowered to do the cooking themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

EQUALITY BEGINS AT SCHOOL LUNCH<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscrimination happens for the kids who get a free or reduced lunch: they have to be in this special line. That was one of the reasons that New York City made that decision (to give every public K-12 student a free school lunch). When everybody is sitting at the same table, then that becomes the place of equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

A CAFETERIA SHOULD BE BEAUTIFUL<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were designing the cafeteria (at MLKJ Middle School), I said I don\u2019t want a white, stainless kitchen. We can make it a light color that\u2019s cleanable. Good lighting, but it doesn\u2019t have to be fluorescent lighting. You can have pictures on the walls. The dining room we made so beautiful with wooden tables and little chairs. We created a space with copper lamps and windows that open up to the outside. Dishwashers are always persecuted: they\u2019re in the hottest place, no (space), just awful. We made the dishwashing room the most beautiful part of the kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

amandaraewashere@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alice WatersPhoto by Amanda Marsalis When Alice Waters sees the future, no child is scared of the school cafeteria. Whether because of bland, unhealthy food or fear of shame about not having money to pay for lunch \u2014 issues that plague public schools across the United States. In 1995, the acclaimed chef-owner of Chez Panisse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 07:45:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}