Food Sleuth: ‘Renegade Lunch Lady’ Hopes to Inspire Food Revolution

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Columbia Daily Tribune

August 15, 2007

Available online at: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Aug/20070815Life010.asp

Chef Ann Cooper is known as the "renegade lunch lady." But I’d say she’s more like the "first lady of lunch." Even though Cooper fits the image of a spitfire rebel, she’s also got class, purpose and passion. She believes that if we can "change the way children eat and think about food, we can make a positive impact for generations to come." Her goal: transform school cafeterias into culinary classrooms.

Cooper’s the director of food and nutrition for the Berkeley Unified School District in California. When she arrived on the job less than two years ago, the only pieces of equipment in her kitchen were a can crusher and a box cutter.

Cooper’s commitment stems from the sobering statistics predicting that children today will be the first generation in American history to die at a younger age than their parents because of diet-related diseases.

Ironically, Cooper’s career didn’t start in a cafeteria. For 30 years, she worked as a "white-tablecloth celebrity chef." She catered parties for 20,000, cooked for Hollywood stars and even brought her culinary skills backstage to Grateful Dead concerts. However, in the process of writing two books, she changed the way she thought about food.

For her first book, "A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen" (Routledge, 1997), Cooper met women chefs who described how they were making organic, sustainable food the focus of their menus. In "Bitter Harvest: A Chef’s Perspective on the Hidden Dangers in the Foods We Eat and What You Can Do About It" (Routledge, 2000), Cooper pieced together newfound knowledge about excess fat, sugar and hormone-disrupting chemicals that adulterate our food system and threaten our planet and personal health.

When Cooper was given the opportunity to be the executive chef at a private school on Long Island, N.Y., she bit. She saw the job as a chance to make a real difference in the world. Her menus focused on regional, organic, seasonal and sustainable foods. Yet she wanted to bring the privilege of good food to children in public school and help kids everywhere have access to wholesome, nutritious, delicious food at school.

Cooper spoke at the Society for Nutrition Education’s 40th annual meeting this month in Chicago. There she hosted a "school lunch lottery," in partnership with Organic Valley Family of Farms. Similar to hungry students, conference attendees filed into the cafeteria, tired and eager for lunch. But before we could get our meal, we received a fateful ticket.

Unlucky yellow ticket holders received a "typical school lunch" - chicken nuggets, potato puffs, dressing-soaked slaw, canned peaches in syrup and chocolate milk. Lucky red or green ticket holders received a "healthy school lunch" or a "healthy packed lunch." The former included a chicken breast sautéed in herbs with garlic mashed potatoes, mixed green salad and organic milk. The latter consisted of a turkey sandwich on whole-wheat bread with fruit and organic milk.

All who received the "typical school lunch" voiced distaste and disappointment. But Cooper reminded us that too many American children don’t have a choice. This is what kids "have to eat." Then she outlined the "hidden costs" of the highly processed meal, including negative effects on child health, behavior and academic performance.

Cooper described her work as the "hardest job I will ever have." She’s had to retrain staff and tackle unrealistic, low-cost spending expectations. But "this has to be about the kids," she said. "Aren’t we here for the kids?"

On the Web: www.LunchLessons.org and www.organicvalley.coop /school_lunch.