Waters leads campaign to introduce American kids to healthy eating

Celebrated US chef Alice Waters has urged chefs to contribute to the fight against obesity by helping to educate schoolchildren about the gate-to-plate food cycle.

Speaking to a packed audience on the final day of the festival, Waters, chef-proprietor of the famed Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, said that she had raised $500,000 to pay for eight teachers to implement her ambitious plans to alter the grazing habits of 10,000 Berkeley schoolchildren.

She said that by involving pupils in growing the ingredients for their school lunch, which they then helped to cook, she aimed to reduce the negative impact of the fast-food culture. The process also helped to tackle the USA's growing obesity problem.

She continued: "Engaging children in every aspect of the growing and cooking process - involving real, rather than manufactured, food - helps them partake."

Waters explained that her programme was introducing many children to the joys of sitting at a table, eating freshly prepared food in a social context, for the first time. It is believed that only 15% of US children sit down to eat a family meal.

Waters claimed that her programme is impacting every area of the school curriculum, including history, science, geography and drama.

Fellow American chef Charlie Trotter endorsed the implementation of education initiatives by chefs. At his eponymous restaurant in Chicago, Trotter encourages children to eat fresh food by inviting 20 different teenagers to eat in his restaurant three times every week. He said: "By providing young people with the family dining experience we are spreading the message of excellence."

Trotter has also raised $500,000 over the past five years to provide scholarships and grants to pay for young people to go to culinary school.

The two chefs, both of whom cooked dinners at the week-long festival, which celebrated American cuisine, were speaking during a debate questioning whether chefs have a role to play in educating what has been dubbed the "fast-food generation."

Also participating in the discussion was Rose Gray, chef-proprietor of London's River Caf‚, who called on the British Government to spend money on educating school dinner ladies on how to buy produce locally and seasonally. Another panellist, food writer Bee Wilson of the Sunday Telegraph Magazine, called for all school meals to be provided free of charge.

She said: "It might seem a costly thing to do, but as well as the benefits of children sitting together and sharing good, honest food, there would also be enormous public health benefits."