From the category archives:

school food

Berkeley School Cooking & Gardening Classes in Jeopardy

May 21, 2013 bay area bites

Berkeley public schools are in danger of losing their gardening and cooking classes due to federal funding cuts. A report on what the community is doing to save their edible education program.

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Almost Wordless Wednesday

May 8, 2013 bay area bites

Federal funding cuts coming to some schools’ cooking and gardening programs.

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Katrina Heron New Edible Schoolyard Project Director

November 7, 2012 berkeley bites

Veteran journalist Katrina Heron takes the reins at The Edible Schoolyard Project.

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School Lunch 2.0: Oakland Headed for an Overhaul

August 29, 2012 edible east bay magazine

On the ballot this November: an ambitious plan to overhaul Oakland Unified School District’s inadequate and antiquated school food system, which serves 6.5 million meals a year to 38,000 students, 70 percent of whom are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

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Weight of the Nation: Battle of the Bulge Comes to Cable

May 15, 2012 civil eats

HBO tackles the vast and complex problem in a new four-part series, The Weight of the Nation: Confronting America’s Obesity Epidemic.

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Berkeley Votes to Fund At-risk Edible School Programs

April 17, 2012 berkeley bites

The Berkeley Unified School District School Board recently voted to authorize funding up to $350,000 for three elementary schools that were in danger of losing their gardening and cooking programs for the next school year. The move came as welcome news for all those involved in the programs and anyone who champions teaching children to eat, grow, and cook their greens.

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Berkeley Seeks Life Support for School Edible Programs

March 31, 2012 berkeley bites

In the face of funding cuts, a community with an international reputation for edible schoolyards looks for ways to make gardening and cooking programs sustainable in Berkeley schools.

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Berkeley School Gardening, Cooking Programs Face Cuts

March 26, 2012 berkeley bites

Berkeley has an international reputation for its edible schoolyards, where public school children of all economic means learn what it takes to grow a radish and sauté some chard. Potential funding cuts to the program would represent a significant setback in the city’s pioneering efforts to date.

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School Lunch Without the Stress

January 23, 2012 global cuisine

Find tried-and-true tips from the trenches to help stave off the lunch box blues.

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Best Blog Posts from the 2011 Lettuce Eat Kale Archives

December 28, 2011 baking

Wherein we look back at the stories of 2011 on LEK, pick the best of the bunch, and then take a nap.

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New Guide Aims to Improve School Food Beyond Berkeley

November 17, 2011 bay citizen

At a hands-on workshop at the recent Community Food Security Coalition Conference school food folk test recipes from the new guide, Cooking with California Food.

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Alice Waters: Lunch, Levi’s and Edible Education

August 26, 2011 bay area bites

Alice Waters takes to the streets of San Francisco to serve her vision of school lunch, launch Edible Schoolyard T-shirts, and sign her new book about 40 years of Chez Panisse.

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Seven Steps to Starting Your Own School Food Revolution

April 12, 2011 great schools site

Want to start a school food revolution? Read on to find out how from parents who have overhauled their kids’ school cafeterias.

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A Planner who Favors Edible, Eco Education, and Risks

March 25, 2011 berkeley bites

Sharon Danks designs green schoolyards for children — including outdoor classrooms with edible gardens — as places of exploration, challenge, and wonder.

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Surgeon General Swings by Edible Schoolyard

March 17, 2011 berkeley bites

The nation’s top doc, U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Regina Benjamin, tours the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, touts healthy schools as a key component of her vision for a healthy and fit America.

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Oakland’s Farm Fresh Approach to School Food

March 3, 2011 edible east bay magazine

Oakland Fresh School Produce Markets brings fresh, local, seasonal food to students and their families at affordable prices, right after the school bell rings. The model program, currently in 12 elementary schools, is slated to start in 13 more next school year.

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Berkeley’s School Lunch Program Flawed, Say Insiders

February 14, 2011 berkeley bites

The successes — and shortcomings — of the Berkeley’s revamped school food program received equal billing at the premiere of short films called the Lunch Love Community Documentary Project.

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Berkeley’s School Lunch Makes its Big Screen Debut

February 13, 2011 bay area bites

The Lunch Love Community Documentary explores edible education and lunch reform in Berkeley schools.

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Joy Moore: Community Food Reformer

February 11, 2011 berkeley bites

Fresh food advocate Joy Moore on school food reform and getting good food to under-served Berkeley residents.

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Ten Top Food News Stories of 2010: Part One

January 2, 2011 bay area bites

Five of the biggest food news stories in 2010: school food, street food, food politics, food safety, and DIY eats.

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Alice Waters’ 40 Year Campaign for Good Food

October 22, 2010 bay citizen

The mother of the modern food movement talks about her lifelong edible adventure, feeding children well, and teaching people to cook.

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New School Food Study: Victory for Alice Waters

September 24, 2010 food research

Take that Caitlin Flanagan. Finally, some academic research to support what people like Edible Schoolyard founder Alice Waters, who have watched kids pick spinach, cook kale, and chew on chard, have known all along: Children who grow their own food (and prepare it and eat it too) make healthier food choices. Read all about the [...]

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Lunch Box Picks for People (Big and Small) and the Planet

August 31, 2010 great schools site

Cool green lunch tools: Pick a healthier school lunch with these planet-friendly picks.

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School Food: Japanese Style

July 13, 2010 kids & food

Look what’s for lunch at school in Japan. It’s enough to whet anyone’s appetite.

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Ten Teens Rocking the Food Revolution Scene

July 7, 2010 food films

Ten teens rocking the Food Revolution scene, making a difference on the food front in schools and communities around the country.

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10 Questions for Mrs. Q of Fed Up With Lunch

June 4, 2010 civil eats

Interview with Mrs. Q from Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project.

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Berkeley Bites

May 29, 2010 berkeley bites

Inotrducing Berkeley Bites, my new local food profiles posted every Friday on Berkeleyside.

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Meatless Mondays: A Handy Primer, Part One

May 17, 2010 food organizations

Every Monday is meatless in my home. Most Tuesdays-Sundays as well, as regular readers of this blog already know. Okay, there’s one notable exception, which you can read all about in a recent post, A Culinary Confession. But for the purposes of this blog entry: I’ve essentially been a veg head for the past three [...]

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Inside Berkeley’s School Kitchen: Part Two

May 14, 2010 food organizations

A follow-up on Ed Bruske of The Slow Cook blog’s series about the Berkeley Unified School District’s central kitchen and school lunch program, considered a model around the country.

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Inside Berkeley’s School Kitchen

May 10, 2010 civil eats

An ex-Washington Post reporter, who now blogs about school food, recently spent a week embedded in the central kitchen of the Berkeley Unified School District, in my hometown.
Ed Bruske’s mission: To find out how one school community manages to cook food from scratch for its students.

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Five Reasons for Optimism on the School Food Front

May 6, 2010 food organizations

School food news: Introducing FoodCorps, Food Revolution Legacy, Changes in Chicago School Food, Cool School Food Advocates in Cyberspace and Children Champion Change.

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Seven Reasons Why the Time is Ripe for School Lunch Reform

April 5, 2010 civil eats

Academic Janet Poppendieck, author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America, discusses school food reform at a California Food Policy Advocates event.

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Jamie Oliver: School Food Revolution or Reality TV Rubbish?

March 29, 2010 food politics

It’s time to talk about the Limey lad’s Appalachian invasion. Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

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Fed Up with School Lunch: The Feds Join The Fray

February 9, 2010 civil eats

Many kids in the U.S. eat half their daily calories at school. And what a sad, super-size me state of affairs that is in most parts of the country. Highly processed and packaged food laden with sugar, fat, and salt fill in for whole grains, fruit & veg, and protein — you know, the kind [...]

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Cultivating Controversy: In Defense of an Edible Education

January 18, 2010 food politics

I was so royally peeved by Caitlin Flanagan’s hatchet job on Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard in her Atlantic piece “Cultivating Failure” that it’s taken me a week to simmer down enough to write about the matter with some decorum. The snarky article takes a swing at public school gardens everywhere and it made [...]

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School Produce Stand Feeds Families in Oakland

January 12, 2010 civil eats

Care to sample a strawberry or scoop up salad greens for supper when you pick up your child from school? Since school went back last September you can do just that every Tuesday at Glenview Elementary School in Oakland, California. Led by garden coordinator and parent Delana Toler, a small core of volunteers — some [...]

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2010 Harvest Calendar

January 5, 2010 food flotsam & jetsam

Happy New Year! I wanted to share with my peeps one of my favorite holiday gifts (thanks again Marge), this lovely harvest calendar by artist and organic plant nursery co-owner Helen Krayenhoff.  It’s filled with photos of tempting produce and each month includes a recipe — Picante Cabbage Slaw for January, Bok Choy Sauteed with [...]

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Recipe Guide Giveaway: My Lunch Box

September 21, 2009 food book giveaways

If you’re like many parents, a few weeks into the new school year you’re probably desperate to come up with some different lunch ideas that your kid will eat, don’t take too long to make, and cover the nutritional bases. Help is on its way. Check out my recent blog post which includes suggestions and [...]

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Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food

September 18, 2009 food politics

Photo of farmer Ramon Mojica taken by Brian Lee, courtesy of Riverdog Farm Finally, a government policy I can dig. And based on such a simple premise: Know where your food comes from and who produces it. This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food, a new federal initiative [...]

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Beating the Brown Bag Blues a.k.a. Taking the Stress Out of School Lunch

September 10, 2009 food books

The new school year brings earlier mornings for some, the transition to different teachers, curriculum, or kids for most, and — the bane of many parents’ existence — packing a lunch every day. For those of you whose child’s school cranks out edible fare — and your kid willingly eats it — good luck to [...]

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School's in Session, Time for Lunch Lessons

September 8, 2009 food politics

Yesterday while loads of folks fronted for backyard barbecues, Slow Food USA sponsored more than 300 Eat-Ins around the country as part of their Labor Day potlucks with a purpose. The cause: Getting real food into schools. The organization’s Time for Lunch Campaign seeks to bring attention to the Child Nutrition Act, the bill that [...]

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Food Stamped: A Film For Our Times

June 22, 2009 food films

Who knew that a documentary on the food stamp program could be funny, infuriating, informative, and entertaining? Food Stamped sets out to answer a simple but important question: Is it possible to eat well for a week on the federal supplemental food aid program? In this new film nutrition educator Shira Potash and her movie-maker [...]

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Feed a Family, Fund a Farmer, Support a School

June 5, 2009 school food

Gotta love the fabo eco-experiment (in more ways than one) in its second year at an independent K-8th school in El Cerrito, a suburban enclave adjacent to food-centric Berkeley in Northern California. It’s a program that seems well worth replicating in cash-strapped schools across the country. Here’s what’s happening: Every Wednesday between 12 and 2 [...]

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