RICHMOND — Few names are as synonymous with the now-flourishing organic, farm-to-table culinary arts trend at restaurants nationwide — and especially in the Bay Area — than legendary Chez Panisse chef and restaurateur Alice Waters, who started the so-called Slow Food movement in Berkeley.
When the renowned chef and food activist graced the humble school cafeteria of Peres Elementary School in Richmond on Wednesday with her celebrity presence, it was clearly a cause for jubilation for hundreds of her fans throughout the school. In particular, she was there to celebrate and support the launch of the West Contra Costa Unified School District’s partnership with the nonprofit Conscious Kitchen to provide 100 percent organic schools meals at Peres and Madera Elementary schools through all of next school year.
To celebrate the commitment, Waters, alongside many of the district’s and city’s leaders, partook of a wholesome, organic lunch, with hundreds of happy students, teachers and educators. Together, they devoured barbecue chicken drumsticks, garden salads and fresh-sliced watermelon from the rind, as Waters gave her blessing and support for one of the most ambitious food projects that the school district has ever undertaken.
“It’s just a moment of the day where we come together, eat together and share, so that those values are really brought back in a school setting and really nourish the children,” Waters said of her support of the ideals of providing a fully organic, locally sourced lunch to all students.
Although many school districts are trying to provide fresh, made-from-scratch and locally sourced meals, this was the first time she’d seen a school district as large as West Contra Costa try to go fully organic at a number of its public schools, she said, and that’s why she wanted to pledge her support for the program.
“And I’m hoping that every school has a school lunch program that supports the farmers that take care of the land … where schools actually make a commitment to buy food from ranchers, fishermen and farmers that are taking care of the land for the future of our planet,” Waters said.
She says she also believes that what takes place at the two schools will be the model for other schools throughout the Bay Area and nation. And she envisions helping them to build garden and kitchen classrooms, as she has at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School’s Edible Schoolyard project in Berkeley, where the students learn academics alongside the hands-on skills they need to learn to cook and feed themselves in a healthier way that will last their lifetimes.
After trying out the program in a weeklong pilot at the two schools over the past year, educators saw a difference, said Lisa LeBlanc, the district’s associate superintendent.
“During just one week, teachers reported that students were calmer, more attentive, and complained less about stomachaches; and we witnessed enhanced community bonds, as teachers and students shared meals together, students embraced food-focused education,” she said. “We look forward to building on that success.”
To take the two schools’ organic meals programs to the next level, the school district will sign a contract to pay $20,000 for professional services to Conscious Kitchen, which will provide recipes and technical expertise to make meals from scratch and help it work with farmers and ranchers to provide locally sourced produce.
And together, the district and the nonprofit will be launching a $1 million fundraising effort, through grants, private foundations and a crowd-sourcing campaign to bring the project to the two schools.
Virtually all of the 550 students at Peres Elementary are on free and reduced-price lunches, whereas about 20 percent of Madera Elementary’s roughly 520 students are on the federal program.
Judi Shils, founder and executive director of the Conscious Kitchen, said the program is designed to remove barriers of access to healthy food for all children. Similarly, Conscious Kitchen also helped the Sausalito Marin City School District become the nation’s first school district to serve only organic and non-GMO meals in 2015.
“I think that fast food, cafeteria free-for-all has to disappear,” Waters said of the typical school meal lunchroom environment, “because kids learn to take it or leave it (when it comes to school meals) and… that has to stop…This has to be a place of social justice and real nourishment.”
To contribute to the crowd-funding campaign for the program, go to www.razoo.com/story/theconsciouskitchen.
