Educasting Study Guide on Food, Sustainability, and Society
Eat Your Peas! : Launching the School Lunch Revolution
Introduction: Zenobia Barlow of the Center for Ecoliteracy
Track 1: Program Synopsis
For many of us, the words “school lunch” induce a certain queasiness in remembrance of earnest but inedible meals with unmentionable nicknames. For some, they provoke groans of protest…unless, of course, it’s pizza day. This program goes beyond the plate and into the heart of the matter of lunch in public schools. Guests discuss why the practice of serving lunch in school was established and what purposes they serve today. But in many public schools children are served nutritionally deficient lunches that lack any fresh ingredients and require no preparation aside from cutting open bags of frozen food and heating them in microwaves. To improve the dismal state of school lunches today, programs are being developed that not only reintroduce fresh, healthy food to the lunch table, but teach kids how to grow and cook the kinds of food that both nourish their bodies and tickle their palates.Guests include students and a teacher at John Muir Elementary School in California and food preparation workers in the Berkeley, California school district; noted chef Ann Cooper, Berkeley School District food director; Janet Brown, a school lunch reformer at the Center for EcoLiteracy in Berkeley; Eric Weaver, an attorney and parent activist in the district; Mark Arakelian from Perspectives Charter School in Chicago, and Dr. Pamela Koch, a professor of nutrition at Columbia University.
Track 2: Chef Ann Cooper
Food director of the Berkeley School District
Guest Bio:
Chef Ann Cooper is a “renegade lunch lady” who directs nutrition services works to transform cafeterias into culinary classrooms for students at the 16 school Unified School District in Berkeley, California. With an emphasis on the health of students and not on agribusiness, Chef Ann’s menus emphasize regional, organic, fresh foods and nutritional education. Her Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, is overflowing with strategies for parents and school administrators. She is also the author of Bitter Harvest: A Chef’s Perspective on the Hidden Danger in Foods We Eat and What You Can Do About It and A Woman’s Place Is in the Kitchen: The Evolution of Women Chefs.
http://www.lunchlessons.org
Track 3: Janet Brown
Center for EcoLiteracy
Guest Bio:
Janet Brown is program officer for food systems at the Center for Ecoliteracy, a public foundation dedicated to education for sustainable living. She is a certified organic farmer, known in northern California for her 50 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and 250 varieties of heirloom roses, as well as her peppers, sunflowers, squash and melons. She is vice president of Marin Organic, an association of nearly 30 organic producers in Marin County, and is founder and chair of the Marin Food Policy Council.
http://www.ecoliteracy.org
Track 4: Eric Weaver
Parent activist and attorney
Guest Bio:
Eric Weaver is a parent of children in the Berkeley Unified School District where Ann Cooper directs nutrition services and an advocate for school lunch reform. He is a lawyer by profession.
Track 5: Marc Arakelian
Director of the Healthy Lifestyles Program at Perspectives Charter School
Guest Bio:
Marc Arakelian directs the Healthy Lifestyles Initiative and is responsible for the breakfast, lunch and after-school nutrition programs for all Perspectives Charter School campuses. He also has been a product development chef at a management company that services hundreds of Chicago-area schools. The former cook at fine-dining establishments has brought education to students, as well as new menu focusing on nutrient-dense foods such as whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables—while limiting processed foods, hydrogenated oils and saturated fats.
http://www.perspectivescs.org
Track 6: Dr. Pamela Koch
Columbia University nutrition professor and registered dietician
Guest Bio:
Dr. Pamela Koch is the project coordinator for Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE) at Teachers College, Columbia University, a two-year science and nutrition education program for upper elementary and middle schools. She also has been a curriculum developer for a supplemental education program that teaches children, teachers and parents about food choices that are both good for them and good for the earth.
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=pak14
Closing: Zenobia Barlow