CEL | Rethinking School Lunch







		Rethinking School Lunch

		The Rethinking School Lunch (RSL) program uses a systems approach to address the crisis in childhood obesity, provide nutrition education, and teach ecological knowledge. CEL spent five years researching the 10 interrelated dimensions below, which are vital to achieving this vision:

		The RSL program: - Includes an online Rethinking School Lunch guide, an essay series, "Thinking outside the Lunchbox," technical assistance, grants, and presentations - Creates a framework for a comprehensive curriculum that integrates campus gardens, kitchen classrooms, school lunch, and a wide range of academic subjects - Treats childhood obesity, nutrition-related illness, the quality of school lunches, and children’s ability to learn as related issues - Recognizes that lunchroom experiences (including poor-quality meals, shortened lunch periods, commercial messages, and excessive packaging and waste) can be a "hidden curriculum" that undermines classroom lessons about nutrition and health - Links schools’ food purchasing decisions, the viability of family farms, solid waste generated by the lunchroom, and the environmental cost of shipping food over thousands of miles - Offers, through Thinking outside the Lunchbox essays, challenging views by leading thinkers on food and food systems, education, economics, and personal and community health - Provides a downloadable Model Wellness Policy Guide that provides language and instructions for drafting a Wellness Policy that places health at the center of the academic curriculum The planning framework of Rethinking School Lunch is being applied across a public school system through the School Lunch Initiative at Berkeley. Learn more about the School Lunch Initiative at Berkeley Foundations Rethinking School Lunch was made possible by a generous grant from The California Endowment with additional support from:
		Arkay Foundation Berkeley Unified School District The Boals Fund The Peter K. Buckley Fund California Nutrition Network (CNN) Center for Ecoliteracy Chez Panisse Foundation Columbia Foundation Gellert Foundation		Greenville Foundation Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation Roy A. Hunt Foundation W. K. Kellogg Foundation Rose Foundation Small Planet Fund United States Department of Agriculture Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Trust
		Contributors The Center for Ecoliteracy wishes to acknowledge the following experts who have contributed to Rethinking School Lunch:
		Zenobia Barlow, Center for Ecoliteracy Marilyn Briggs, California Department of Education Janet Brown, Center for Ecoliteracy Karen Brown, Karen Brown Design Fritjof Capra, Center for Ecoliteracy Margo Crabtree, CB & Associates J. P. Dozier, Bon Appétit Management Company Andy Goodman, a goodman communications Robert Gottlieb, Urban Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College Marsha Guerrero, The Edible Schoolyard Alison Harmon, Pennsylvania State University Misa Koketsu, Center for Ecoliteracy Jim Koulias, Center for Ecoliteracy		Michele Lawrence, Berkeley Unified School District Sara Marcellino, Center for Ecoliteracy Steve Marshall, The Marshall Associates, Inc. Nancy May, Healdsburg Unified School District J. Michael Murphy, Harvard School of Medicine Binet Payne, Laytonville Unified School District Jessica Prentice, Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture Stephen Rutherford, John Muir Elementary School, BUSD Carolie Sly, Community Learning Services Michael K. Stone, Center for Ecoliteracy Miguel Villarreal, Novato Unified School District Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Foundation Marc Zammit, Bon Appétit Management Company

		Collaborators
		Berkeley Unified School District The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Middle School, Berkeley, California The Fertile Crescent Network — a Northern California farm-to-school network sponsored by the Center for Ecoliteracy The Food Service Directors' Roundtable — a roundtable convened by the Center for Ecoliteracy The Center for Ecoliteracy is a partner in "Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids: The California Farm to School Program." This statewide network of farm-to-school projects is sponsored by the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College, through the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

		Rethinking School Lunch was produced by:
		Zenobia Barlow, executive director Janet Brown, writer, content editor Karen Brown, designer Holly Coleman, html programmer Margo Crabtree, senior researcher Jo Farrell, production assistant Misa Koketsu, copy editor		Jim Koulias, project manager Naomi Lucks, editor Sara Marcellino, researcher Michael K. Stone, writer James Tyler, photographer Eric Wallinger, administrative assistant Nobuko Yamada, financial advisor