Alice Waters - The Edible Schoolyard and Edible Education

The Edible Schoolyard and Edible Education

The primary work of the Chez Panisse Foundation has been to establish and sustain the Edible Schoolyard program at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School. The Edible Schoolyard was established in 1995 and is a 1-acre (4,000 m2) organic garden and kitchen classroom. Students at the middle school are involved in growing, harvesting, and preparing the foods from the garden, with the aim of promoting the environmental and social well-being of the school community.

Waters' work at the Edible Schoolyard has also developed into her School Lunch Initiative, which has the broader goal of bringing school children into a new relationship with food by making a healthy, fresh, sustainable meal a part of the school day. The School Lunch Initiative is a collaborative project with the Center for Ecoliteracy, also in Berkeley, and is also the topic of a series of studies through the Center for Weight and Health, at UC Berkeley.

The School Lunch Initiative is focused on bringing wholesome school lunch to the 10,000 students in the Berkeley Unified School District. In 2005, the Chez Panisse Foundation provided a grant to Berkeley schools to hire Ann Cooper as the Director of Nutrition Services for the district. Cooper and the Foundation eliminated almost all processed foods from the district and introduced organic fruits and vegetables to the daily menu, all while staying within the district’s budget. Waters' vision is to teach subjects such as history, science, and art through the vehicle of food.

In September 2010, the Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley, Center for Ecoliteracy, and Chez Panisse Foundation released an evaluation report on the School Lunch Initiative. The report tracked elementary and middle school students over three years to determine the effects of the School Lunch Initiative on children's eating habits and knowledge. The report found that students in schools with highly developed School Lunch Initiative components ate more daily servings of fruit and vegetables than students in schools with lesser developed programs, and that they scored higher on food knowledge assessments. Schools with highly developed School Lunch Initiative components integrated kitchen and garden classes into the school curriculum, in addition to overhauling the school lunch program.

Although the work of the Chez Panisse Foundation has focused primarily on the Berkeley Unified School District, Waters has become a vocal and familiar advocate for school lunch reform and activism at the national level, as well. In 2009 she appeared on the CBS television program “60 Minutes,” and made a public call for President Obama to plant an organic garden at the White House to catalyze change in the US food system,.

She also encouraged President Bill Clinton to plant such a garden, although she didn’t see it come to fruition until the Obama administration took residence. Michelle Obama, in conjunction with her anti-obesity campaign Let's Move!, planted the White House organic vegetable garden in March 2009, and many cite Waters’ influence as a leading factor in the First Lady’s current objectives with Let's Move! and the White House garden. An article in the ‘’San Francisco Chronicle’’ states that:

Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, which replaced her predecessor's literacy drive, addresses much of what Waters has been preaching…Chris Lehane, a political consultant who has worked for Al Gore and Bill Clinton, sees Waters as “the George Washington of the movement and Northern California as the 13 colonies…If you’re going to pick a figure who's responsible for it all, it all comes back to her.”