A SCHOOL LUNCH REVOLUTION
Education and food are two universal rights. All children deserve to go to school. And everyone deserves to eat nourishing food. These two rights are at the foundation of our health and well-being. We are at a pivotal moment: if we truly want to address the intersecting systemic problems of health, education, and climate change, we must take action
now. This is not the time for half measures-we are in a battle for the future of our planet. A significant action we can take right now is to reimagine our food systems and the way we feed our students, from kindergarten all the way through high school and college. What I am proposing is a direct, meaningful relationship between schools and farms: I call this school-supported regenerative agriculture. Unlike the existing system for school lunch, this holistic approach to feeding students includes buying ingredients from regenerative farmers and producers and cooking those fresh ingredients on-site in school kitchens. If schools purchased, cooked, and served food in this way-buying
directly from organic, regenerative farmers-it would not merely transform the food in cafeterias and the health and happiness of our students (although of course it would). It could also transform our climate.
I travel a great deal and speak to all kinds of gatherings-to anyone who will listen!-about the imperative of feeding our schoolchildren healthy food, supporting farmers who practice regenerative agriculture, and looking at climate change through the lens of food and health. Talk is good, but occasionally I have the opportunity to try to convince people the best way I know how: with food. Taste this peach-this is what we could serve to our children.
I have seen how it works when, for example, we served a school lunch menu to six hundred organic farmers at an annual farming conference in Georgia. I wanted them to experience what I have seen firsthand. For the past twenty-five years, I have been thinking about and reimagining school food at the Edible Schoolyard Project, a kitchen and garden classroom at a public middle school in Berkeley, California. Over the years, we have developed recipes that are nourishing, delicious, affordable, and universally loved by students and adults alike.
All the ingredients for our lunch in Georgia were sourced locally within fifty miles, direct from the farmers, who were so proud to bring us their beautiful organic produce. Before lunch I spoke of our goals and vision and asked that everyone imagine themselves in a school setting, sitting with a group of twelve, and each with a task of serving the others. The farmers began to chat while we filled a long serving table with platters of reezy peezy fritters and cornbread, bowls of collard greens, roasted root vegetables, and green salad. When all was ready, to avoid the chaos and din of typical cafeterias, I asked the group to quietly bring the food to the dining tables. In three and a half minutes the room of six hundred was served peacefully, calmly, and without rush. They passed the bowls and platters at the table and began to take in the aromas, colors, and warmth, and the conversation welled up-all about the food!
This tastes really delicious, it's so simple, why is it so good? And that is when it hit home for the farmers: This is what school lunch can be, when it is made from local, seasonal ingredients. Imagine the possibilities if we fed our children this way.
When school districts buy food from local regenerative farms, they contribute to the economic empowerment of our communities, revitalizing and supporting farms that are taking care of the land for future generations. But just as important, they perpetuate the essential values of stewardship, nourishment, and interconnectedness directly through the cafeteria doors to our students.
The recipes and menus in this book are examples of what is possible when school-supported regenerative agriculture is at the foundation of a school lunch revolution. Throughout, the recipes are guided by the principles of what school lunch should be: Local and Seasonal, Affordable, Diverse, Simple and Delicious, and Beautiful.
Copyright © 2025 by Alice Waters. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
