The Edible Schoolyard in Los Angeles

In the May issue of Los Angeles Magazine (currently at newsstands but not online yet), Hilary MacGregor shares the story of school lunches. Last September, Larchmont Charter School (LCS) implemented Alice Waters' revolutionary The Edible Schoolyard where the school garden supplies the food to feed the students. Students sit down to a meal served by the parents and eat with real utensils (although the photo from the story looks like LCS is using compostable plates and flatware).

Waters pioneered the idea eating fresh locally grown foods that are in season through her acclaimed restaurant Chez Panisse. The Edible Schoolyard applies that same principle of fresh local seasonal foods to school lunches.

Sounds great, right?

MacGregor talks about some of the complications encountered at LCS on the road to healthy lunches, including parental blow back (in a nutshell: it's expensive ($5/lunch...kids on the subsidized lunch program pay nothing, however) and my kid's not eating it). The principal did not acquiesce to the parent requests to include pasta with parmesean cheese as an option with each lunch.

I look forward to hearing how The Edible Schoolyard evolves at Larchmont Charter School and I hope LCS will become a resource for other Los Angeles area schools who want to revolutionize their lunch programs.