More than 25 years after its founding, the Edible Schoolyard Project continues to deepen the connections young people have with their communities and the food they eat.
In 1995, Executive Chef Alice Waters started the Edible Schoolyard Project, using the school garden, kitchen and cafeteria to teach students the values of food, nature and community. Waters started the project at a middle school in Berkeley, California, with support from a coalition of educators, families, farmers, chefs and artists. Together with the students they set up a garden and kitchen classroom.
Since creating the first Edible Campus, the nonprofit has planted thousands of gardens across the country. In these spaces, young people have the opportunity to deepen their relationship with food and develop new skills. "The food that kids cook really empowers them," Waters told Food Tank. "They're being changed by it."
Each garden takes shape in a different way, but Waters believes it does not matter whether students grow their food in an urban or rural setting, in pots or in the ground. "They really need to know it's possible," she says. "Seeing is believing, and all we have seen right now is disaster. War and disasters. We need to see people empowered and growing their own food."
Engaging young people is only part of Waters' vision. She believes that transforming the world's food and agriculture systems requires everyone's participation. "We need to learn what it means to live in a democracy," Waters told Food Tank. "And a democracy means that everyone has something to contribute."
Listen to the full conversation with Alice Waters on "Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg" to learn more about the power of food in community, why designing gardens and kitchens is important, and why Waters calls supporting farmers who grow food for schools the best solution is “the biggest gift that we can give the next generation.”
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