Chef Ann Cooper says school food should be something that is good, healthy, supportive and educational. And our society should be demanding that.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, she has spent the last 50 years as a chef and cook at some of the most renowned restaurants and resorts in the country. But around 25 years ago, she decided to leave the world of white tablecloths and semi-celebrity chef status to earn the nickname “Renegade Lunch Lady,” working in school cafeterias and being the voice of reform, advocating for scratch-cooked meals made with whole, healthy food.

Chef Ann says she would love to see the world change enough that we don't need foundations like the Chef Anne Foundation that tries to raise money to make school food better. Her message is the importance of feeding children healthy food and teaching them about the symbiotic relationship between healthy food, healthy kids, and a healthy planet.

The public is invited to hear her share that message at the opening event in the Sullivan 180 Speaker Series on August 20 at the Michael Ritchie Big Barn at The Center for Discovery in Hurleyville. The event is free, but register at the Sullivan 180 website.

BL: We all grew up on traditional cafeteria food. What changed?

CA: Even though we grew up on cafeteria food, most of those lunch ladies from 50 years ago were actually cooking. It might have been beef stew, or chili, or soup, or mac and cheese - but they were cooking. We decided, as a country, we wanted cheap food, and the way to make cheap food is with chemicals, additives and preservatives. We ended up with highly processed foods. If you look back 50, 60 years ago, our lunch ladies, when they all retired, and that equipment that was put into those schools, 50, 60 years ago, had to be retired, then the food industry said, you don't need an oven, you don't need a skillet. Here are chicken nuggets, or food in a bag. You don't need trained staff, because all they have to do is have a box cutter or a can opener, and they can open cans of green beans. That's what started happening. 

BL: What do you hear from the schools about the obstacles?

CA: We talk about five key killers to good school food: Food, where do you find it and make sure it's good? Finances, how do you pay for it? Facilities, what do you do if you don't have kitchens, or you don't have stoves, or walk ins? Human resources, how do you try and staff? If you have staff that have been in schools, which is often the case for 10, 20, 30 years, they’ve been serving chicken nuggets. How do you get them to serve beautiful raw chicken? We're in our second generation of children who grew up on high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar food. So how are you going to get them to eat it? All of those challenges exist to some degree in most districts. You kind of chip away at the obstacles that they're facing.

BL: I'm sure you hear from schools that say kids are not going to eat this stuff. 

CA: It's amazing what kids will eat if you just prepare it right and be creative. The vast majority of children are much more curious and able to eat than their parents give them credit for. And I think oftentimes, the adults are the problem.  We have a lot of information and training on how to work with kids. Do taste tests of different foods and vegetables, put in salad bars, so that they have choice, and it's not scary to take a number of different kinds of fruits or vegetables that you may not know. We have Iron Chef competitions where the kids help decide recipes. We have chefs come in and make some food for the kids to taste. We have farmers come in and talk about their product. We send kids to go see farms. Research says it takes nine to 12 times for a child to be introduced to a new product before a food is accepted. Kids are very resilient. 

BL: What are the risks if we do not make any changes? 

CA: I think we're going to see unhealthy children that become unhealthier and unhealthier adults. We're seeing our age declining in America. We're, like, 18th in the world on the health index, you know, the richest nation in the world. We just can't keep going this way. It makes no sense. We see kids with high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes, and it's horrifying, because the children, in most cases, don't get to make a choice. Most children don't choose what they're going to eat every day. If we can teach these kids to love healthy food and think about healthy food and understand its relationship to the planet, maybe they'll save the planet, because as adults, we certainly haven't.