In 1996, Alice Waters, pioneering cook, restaurateur and food activist, created the Chez Panisse Foundation in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. The Foundation supports an educational program that uses food to nurture, educate and empower youth.
Our Vision
The Challenge
Our Work
See our newest 2006-2007 Annual Report (PDF - 1.6M)
See also our 2005-2006 Annual Report (PDF - 1.6M)
Our Vision
The Foundation envisions a nationwide public school curriculum at all levels that includes hands-on experiences in school kitchens, gardens, and lunchrooms. This curriculum will inspire students to choose healthy food and help them understand the impact of their choices on their health, the health of their communities, and the planet.
In addition, we envision public school systems providing delicious, healthy, freshly prepared meals for all of their students as a regular part of each school day-in lunchrooms that appeal to all the senses and are ecologically designed. To create real change in students' eating habits, we must rethink their education and experiences with food, beginning with their experiences in school.
The Challenge
Our mass consumer culture has created an unprecedented crisis of diet related disease among our nation's youth. The fast-food industry dominates school lunch programs, serving highly processed high-fat foods. The shared family meal, where children have traditionally been nourished, is now a rare experience for most kids. According to the Centers for Disease Control, as a result of diabetes and obesity, this generation may be the first to die younger than its parents.
Not only are children eating unhealthy food, they are absorbing the values that go with it: the notions that food should be fast, cheap and easy; that abundance is permanent; that it doesn't matter where food comes from; and that it's ok to waste. While we did not begin our work with the obesity epidemic in mind, comprehensive programs such as ours are an effective way to reach children, especially those at greatest risk.
Our Work
Over the past ten years, we have worked to establish groundbreaking models in the Berkeley Unified School District: the Edible Schoolyard and the School Lunch Initiative. Learn more about our work.