The mission of the Edible Schoolyard Project is to build and share an edible education curriculum for kindergarten through high school. We envision gardens and kitchens as interactive classrooms for all academic subjects, and a free, nutritious, organic lunch for every student. Integrating this curriculum into schools can transform the health and values of every child in America. This is our 2010–2012 report. EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD 2010-2012 ANNUAL REPORT 7 this delicious soda bread is also a hands-on investigation of chemical reactions for an eighth-grade science class. dear friends, “Edible Education” has now entered the mainstream. Our learning model continues to flourish from one simple idea: academic subjects such as math and science become more richly engaging when they are integrated with immersive experiences in kitchens and gardens. As young people are empowered to understand the deep connections between food and every other aspect of life, they develop a sense of global citizenship, a respect for the land, and a determination to nourish themselves and each other. Thanks to the longstanding support of Chez Panisse, our more recent kinship with dynamic programs such as Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move!, and the generous support of our donors, the Edible Schoolyard Project is at the nexus of an ever-strengthening movement. Our work holds more promise and hope now than ever before. We are so grateful for your support! alice waters katrina heron founder & president executive director In 2011, after fifteen years as the Chez Panisse Foundation, we changed our name to the Edible Schoolyard Project to better reflect our mission. We also celebrated the 40th birthday of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café with a series of wonderful events in support of edible education. And we launched our Edible Schoolyard Network, which for the first time brings together allied efforts from around the country and the world. To date, our network represents more than 2,000 edible education programs, in all 50 American states and 29 other countries. The Edible Schoolyard Project’s seminal approach to teaching children elemental food values and environmental stewardship is now being embraced by health-care experts, environmental advocates, politicians, economists, entrepreneurs, and leaders around the world. They realize that not only our own future hangs in the balance with the current food system, but the planet’s as well. Together, we will create lasting change. 6 THE MODEL i. MODELING the MISSION 8 7 four lessons in sixth-grade humanities show how ideas, goods, and THE MODEL foods were traded along the silk road, beginning in 200 b.c.e. Our demonsTraTiOn prOgraM, the Edible Schoolyard Berkeley, is nearing its 20th year of operation. It stands today as a beacon of expertise and mentorship in the burgeoning edible education field. ESY Berkeley offers a fully integrated, standards- based curriculum at a public middle school. Students in grades six, seven, and eight acquire and apply skills in kitchen and garden classrooms that reinforce and amplify their studies in earth science, mathematics, ecology, biology, history, languages, the humanities, and art. 10 MODELing the MissiOn We provide free distribution of all ESY Berkeley course materials, To have healthy kids, we need healthy schools — and also healthy online at edibleschoolyard.org, for our member programs communities. At ESY Berkeley, we showcase a range of time-tested (including six other Founding Edible Schoolyards that we helped activities that help promote wider neighborhood engagement. to establish over the last decade). And we invite all programs to (Popular examples include plant and produce sales, gardening share their own lesson plans and resources, via an easy-to-use tool workshops, and Thanksgiving take-home “kits” with the makings on the site. of the family dinner.) Each year, we host about 1,500 visitors on public and private In 2012, we started a pilot project called Family Nights Out, a tours of the ESY Berkeley program. Tours include a stop in series of on-site evening classes that provide basic lessons in the school dining commons, where — thanks to a partnership healthful cooking and shopping for working families. In a video between the Center for Ecoliteracy, the Edible Schoolyard available at edibleschoolyard.org, we offer a representative Project, Chef Ann Cooper, and the Berkeley Unified School Family Nights Out sequence, in which students lead their parents, District — children are served a freshly prepared lunch that care-givers, and siblings in preparing and sharing a simple, includes local and organic products. seasonal, delicious meal that is easy to make at home. 12 THE MODEL ii. SPREADING the SEEDS 14 sprEaDing the seeds FOr the LasT FivE yEars, we have offered New for summer 2013 is a special Academy session designed intensive professional development in edible for FoodCorps, a national service nonprofit that places members in schools around the country to work on edible education and education at the ESY Berkeley site. Our summer school lunch reform initiatives. The ESY Academy training will ESY Academy covers such topics as garnering prepare FoodCorps Fellows (those with one year of experience support for launching a program; site and soil at a site) to become peer supervisors to incoming members. analysis; garden and kitchen budgets and The ESY Network invites edible education programs from all over maintenance; classroom management and lesson the country and the world to connect with us and each other online. planning; staffing and volunteer coordination; The network makes it possible for educators, administrators, and in-kind giving and fundraising strategies. community advocates, and parents to exchange ideas and offer Since its launch, the ESY Academy has welcomed feedback on best practices. Our 2,250 member programs (to date) have proven eager to support and inspire one another. 235 individuals from 143 schools, representing more than 150,000 students nationwide. Demand In 2012, we completed year two of a thriving partnership with for trainings far exceeds capacity: in 2012, more UC Berkeley to institutionalize edible education studies at the than 250 educators applied for 90 spaces, a pattern university level. In collaboration with Michael Pollan and the Graduate School of Journalism, we created an introductory course we saw repeated in 2013. on the challenges and opportunities of the food system, explored from a variety of perspectives. Classes were open to graduate and undergraduate students as well as members of the public. Guest lecturers have included Eric Schlosser, Marion Nestle, Carlo Petrini, Dan Imhoff, Frances Moore Lappé, and Kelly Brownell. All lectures are available for viewing at edibleschoolyard.org. 16 THE MODEL iii. FORGING the FUTURE 18 forging the FuTurE The EDible schoolyarD prOjEcT intends to We will also expand our professional development offerings, create, curate, and evaluate curriculum for building from the FoodCorps prototype, to provide additional Academy sessions and training that is customized to specific grades K through 12 and to offer this material — locales and circumstances, such as healthcare, childcare, and organized into rich, video-enhanced suites of corporate-wellness initiatives. tools — via a dedicated online distribution platform. We will continually update our ESY Network map as we welcome Curriculum specialists will ensure that we align new programs and expand our support services for members. This with the new Common Core standards, which first-ever alliance of edible education programs will increasingly mirror our learning model by emphasizing “whole engage in information-sharing and become a unified voice on child” mastery of concepts like interdependency, behalf of the integrated learning model and school-lunch reform. resilience, and systems thinking. We will move forward with our UC Berkeley course collaboration, editing lecture videos and offering them in the now-standard MOOC format. Lastly, we will continue to collaborate with new partners, adding them to a roster that currently includes FoodCorps, Whole Kids Foundation (Whole Foods’ nonprofit entity), the National Farm to School Network, Slow Food USA, Slow Food International, Jamie Oliver’s foundations (in the US and the UK), and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation (in Australia). 20 the edible schoolyard network represents and connects thriving THE MODEL partner programs in all 50 states and 29 other countries. locations around the world hawaii alaska 22 THE MODEL Our GRATITUDE 24 Our graTiTude 24 7 in math class, sixth-graders operate a cider press while estimating Our graTiTude and calculating volume and displacement with solids and liquids. AlicE WaTErs was already imagining the Edible Schoolyard Project on the day more than 40 years ago when she opened the doors of Chez Panisse and launched the farm-to-restaurant movement. Both endeavors are based upon the conviction that real food can change your life. Your support is at the heart of this work. So many of you have shared meals at Chez Panisse, joined farm and Edible Schoolyard tours, generously contributed funding, and created a tight-knit community that has literally raised the idea of edible education from the ground up. All of us at the Edible Schoolyard Project can never thank you enough. We extend our unending gratitude to everyone who participated so joyfully in the events celebrating Chez Panisse’s 40th birthday, and are delighted to welcome those who are joining us now. 26 Our graTiTude 2011-12 DONORS CELEBRATING the 40TH BIRTHDAY of CHEZ PANISSE 40TH BirtHday Hosts Cecilia Chiang Patty Curtan & Stephen Thomas Hilary & Daniel Goldstine Sam Hamilton & Jennifer Chaiken Anne Isaak Peggy Knickerbocker & Robert Fisher Lauren McIntosh & Steven Walrod Daphne Miller & Ross Levy Michael Pollan & Judith Belzer Boz & Dominique Scaggs Orville Schell & Baifang Liu Fanny Singer & Alice Waters Daniella & Anthony Sueuga Sylvie & Michael Sullivan Patty Unterman & Tim Savinar Jane White 28 Our graTiTude 40TH BirtHday CHefs 40TH BirtHday Collaborators Nathan Alderson Bill He Cal Peternell Berkeley Art Museum & Knight Program in Science & Rock Field Co., Ltd.