20 September 2009

Renegade lunch lady Ann Cooper's new school-lunch website

School-lunch chef Ann Cooper (watch her talk from EG'07) has been touring the US this summer, asking locals to change their approach to food in schools. Her own revolutionary school lunch program, in which kids eat local produce and fresh bread, has taken hold in Berkeley, California; Cooper just moved to Boulder, Colorado, to revamp that lunch system.

To help other school systems transform their own meal programs, she just launched a beta version of The Lunch Box, a website from her nonprofit F3: Food Family Farming Foundation. Inside The Lunch Box are budget models, menus and lots of recipes -- enter the number of servings you need, and the recipe page calculates how much of each ingredient you'll need. (Meatloaf for 600, anyone?) On Sept. 24 in Houston, Cooper will talk about the project at the Tinsley Elementary School.

Watch Ann Cooper below and catch her enthusiasm for feeding kids good food:

Posted by Mischa Nachtigal | Permalink

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08 March 2009

4 great talks for International Women's Day

To celebrate March 8, International Women's Day, we suggest these four TEDTalks gems from some amazing speakers -- artists, scientists and economists who think deeply about the role of women.

Author and activist Isabel Allende discusses women, creativity, feminism -- and the power of passionate thinkers and doers:

The former Finance Minister of Nigeria, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, talks about one key opportunity to grow African economies -- by investing in women and the businesses they start:

(For more, watch Jacqueline Novogratz >>)

Scientist Nalini Nadkarni explores the world of the forest canopy -- and shares her findings with the world below, through dance, art and bold partnerships. She's working to inspire the next generation of women scientists:

The wonderful Nellie McKay sings "Mother of Pearl" (with the immortal first line "Feminists don't have a sense of humor") and "If I Had You" from her sparkling set at TED2008:

Find these four and many more astonishing women (including the legendary primatologist Jane Goodall, oceanographers Sylvia Earle and Tierney Thys, games theorist Brenda Laurel, Zipcar inventor Robin Chase ... ) on TED.com >>

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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26 October 2008

School lunches and how they got that way, on Newsday.com

Today's Newsday offers an image-packed collection of stories on the school lunch as it is served and paid for in Long Island, New York. Check out the image gallery, which includes Berkeley schools chef Ann Cooper's dream school lunch pictures above (with recipes).

For more on U.S. school lunches, watch Ann Cooper's TEDTalk >>

Image: Grilled beef salad with tatsoi, brown rice and tofu salad, bok choy stir-fry, a pear and 1 percent milk would make an expensive yet ideal, healthy school lunch. (Newsday Photo / Bruce Gilbert)

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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08 October 2008

A heavy education for New York City commuters

Many of us don't know how to eat. (And it's making us fat, sick and disconnected.) This poster and three more like it are turning up in New York subways, confronting us with the vagueness that goes into our food choices. If you really knew that a fast-food burrito meal was 1170 calories -- more than half the calories you should eat all day -- would you still think it was healthy? The campaign, led by NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, hopes to make a dent in the preventable health problems and early deaths caused by obesity each year. Dr. Dean Ornish would be proud. -- Sierra Feldner-Shaw

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16 September 2008

Reinventing the school lunch: Ann Cooper on TED.com

Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, "renegade lunch lady" Ann Cooper shares her passionate belief in remaking the school lunch. She uses scathing language to describe how most American kids are fed at the noon bell, out of cans, boxes and plastic bags -- sowing the seeds of the obesity epidemic that is spreading from the US around the globe. But, she says, there's a coming revolution in the way kids eat at school -- local, sustainable, seasonal and even educational food. (Recorded December 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Duration: 19:42.)

Watch Ann Cooper's 2007 talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of almost 300 TEDTalks -- including more talks about food.

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