SLJ Talks to Chef Alice Waters about Healthy School Lunches

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By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 6/4/2008 2:10:00 PM

Alice Waters isn’t just one of this country’s most influential chefs—she also invented the modern school lunch movement in the mid-1990s with the Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, CA. It’s a program that integrates organic gardening and fresh seasonal cooking into the school’s curriculum and lunchroom—and a growing number of people are trying to do the same at their schools.

SLJ talks to Waters about kids and obesity, and why revamping school lunches is still so hard. 

Are you surprised that it’s still an uphill battle to get healthier foods into schools?

I’m not surprised at all because we, as a nation, haven’t ever paid attention to what we’re eating. And as support for public education has dwindled, the budgets have gotten very, very tight and consequently even less money goes into feeding children.

Who needs to get involved to make sure it happens?

This has to be something that comes from a federal government mandate that has money behind it. It can’t be something that’s done ad hoc and hope that the farmers are going to get asparagus to the local school. There are a few exceptions where there’s an enlightened principal and a good cook and a farmer who is willing to go the extra mile. But those are far and few between and it takes a lot of money. It’s an education of all of the parents, of teachers who work in the schools, it’s an education of everybody.

Are you more concerned about the impact of bad food on low-income kids?

I am concerned about every child right now because even kids who have money don’t eat with their family. They're eating fast food and contributing to the problems of the world.

Besides you, who are the key players lobbying to get healthier foods into schools?

There are lots of people circling here [in California] and in Congress. People like Tom Harkin and Barbara Boxer.

Are you hopeful that one day all kids will have fresh, mostly organic food, served in the lunchroom?

I feel like it’s a necessity. I never expected there to be an obesity epidemic. But it’s a serious health issue. It not only affects personal health, but environmental health, and community health. The issue of well being, which is connected to community and culture, is a big part of the obesity epidemic. You can’t solve the obesity problem with a pill, and it’s going to take an enlightened leadership to make it happen. I see it coming from the United Nations, from the President of the United States and other world leaders who care. It’s really a moral issue. We’re killing our children here.

What changes have you seen in the more than 10 years you’ve been pushing for healthier school meals?

I’m so hopeful about the next generation of Americans, the ones that are in college now. They don’t want to debate whether we should or shouldn’t [be doing this]. They just want it done; they want the prescription. They’re in another place. It took us 30 years to come to some of the conclusions that we’ve come to, but they’re already jumping all over it.

How much stake are you putting in the next president?

With the right combination of circumstances and the force of young people, which is the force we’re seeing in the Obama campaign—in combination with them—we have a great possibility. It may take 10 years. It may take a generation. But we don’t have much time. It might happen more quickly but it means somebody will have to change their priorities in terms of money. So we take the money from Iraq and put it into public education. It’s that kind of reallocation.

What advice do you have for those who would love to recreate a similar healthy food program at their school?

You have to immediately write a letter to the school and ask “What’s going on here?” “What are you serving our children?” There has to be an activism, asking the questions. I’m really interested in the bigger picture because I don’t just want an upgrade. I want an academic subject [about healthy food] that every child takes from kindgergarten though high school, where it’s interactive and connected to all the subjects of the school.