Edible Futures

Famed chef Alice Waters, who catapulted into the public eye in the early 1970s with her Berkeley, California organic restaurant Chez Panisse, has become an icon of the Slow Food Movement. In 1996, she further demonstrated her ongoing commitment to real food by establishing the Edible Schoolyard at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School. Students learned through hands-on experiences where real food actually comes from, and were given opportunities to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious, healthy meals as part of the curriculum.

The Edible Classroom led to the School Lunch Initiative, with the goal of bringing nutritious lunches to school children, while adding gardening and experiential food programs to national public school curriculums. First Lady Michelle Obama has taken the concept of raising healthy kids to new heights with her Let’s Move campaign, which aims to defeat childhood obesity by creating healthier school environments through whole, healthy foods, and by teaching kids the sheer joy of being active”whether that’s a bike ride, a jump-rope session, taking the family dog for a walk, or participating in organized sports. You can do your part to create a healthy generation of children by sending your kids off each day with a beautiful, nutritious lunch, joining them for an after-school walk, and helping them to grow something edible in a pot on your back step, in your yard, or in a community garden. Doesn’t it seem like a good idea to teach children that Twinkies don’t grow on trees?