Alice Waters

Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and Café in Berkeley, California, has championed local, sustainable agriculture for over four decades. She is the founder of The Edible Schoolyard Project, an innovative model for public education that integrates food and agriculture into the core academic curriculum. The centerpiece of the mission is to promote a free, sustainable school lunch for all students, K–12. Waters’ vision for edible education began 20 years ago with The Edible Schoolyard at Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, which today draws thousands of visitors from around the world. The online Edible Schoolyard Network (edibleschoolyard.org) gathers and shares lessons and best practices from school gardens, kitchens, and edible education programs worldwide. To date, there are more than 3,700 ESY Network member programs in 53 countries. Waters is also the author of fourteen books including New York Times bestsellers The Art of Simple Food I & II, 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering; and The Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea.