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Chez Panisse Foundation
1517 Shattuck Ave Berkeley, CA 94709

GENERAL INFORMATION

Who We Are

The Chez Panisse Foundation supports educational programs that use food traditions to nurture, educate, and empower youth. The Foundation envisions a public school curriculum integrated with the school lunch program in which growing, cooking, and sharing food at the table gives students the knowledge and values to build a humane and sustainable future.

• This organization is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity .
• This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.
• Financial information in this report is derived from the organization's June 30, 2008 Form 990.
• Additional narrative information in this report was last supplied by the organization on February 26, 2009.
• Contributions are deductible, as provided by law.

How to Help

This organization is seeking funds from contributions and grants. These funds will be used for unrestricted operating expenses and special projects.

Location(s) Served

• Berkeley Unified School District

NTEE Code

• B12—Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
• C12—Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution
• K12—Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution

Chief Executive

Carina Wong

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MISSION AND PROGRAMS

Mission

Food is a need we all have in common. Yet despite its central place in our lives, food is rarely viewed as an essential component of education. The Chez Panisse Foundation was founded to seek changes in public education that would use growing and cooking food to teach, nurture, and empower young people. We support programs in the Berkeley Unified School District where young people garden, cook, and share freshly prepared meals together. At The Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, we are working to create a school lunch curriculum in which fresh and local ingredients are used to prepare the daily meals for all students. We believe these programs awaken the senses, enliven the classroom, model environmental responsibility, promote good health, and build community bonds. Forty years ago, we had a preview of today''s obesity crisis: a presidential commission told us that America''s children weren''t fit and we resolved to do something about it. The nation responded, at great expense. We launched a physical fitness program in all the public schools. We built new gymnasiums and tracks and playgrounds, we bought new equipment, and we hired and trained new P.E. teachers. We made physical education a mandatory part of the curriculum from kindergarten through high school. Students got credit for exercise and were graded on their performance. Now it''s time for students to start getting credit for school lunch. The Foundation envisions a public school curriculum that integrates academic subjects with hands-on experiences in school kitchens, gardens and lunch rooms. When a healthy school lunch is part of a class that all children have to take for credit, from kindergarten through high school, and when they follow food from the garden to the kitchen to the table, doing much of the work themselves, something amazing happens. The students want to taste everything. They get lured in by foods that are beautiful, that taste and smell good, that appeal to their senses. When children grow and prepare good, healthy food themselves, they want to eat it, and what''s more, they like this way of learning.

Programs

The Edible Schoolyard is a one-acre garden and kitchen classroom at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, a public school in Berkeley, California. The Edible Schoolyard's garden and kitchen classes are not electives, each of the school's 850 students (ages 11 to 14) attends classes in the garden and kitchen. Garden classes address issues of seasonality, plant life cycles, the origins of food, community values, and the pleasures of work. Students apply their skills in the garden to classroom lessons, reinforcing standards-based education about earth science, ecology, biology, human history, and evolution. In the kitchen classroom, students prepare and eat delicious, nutritious, seasonal dishes made from produce they have grown in the garden. By studying the history and anthropology of food in the classroom and cooking and eating together in the kitchen, humanities classes develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and past civilizations. The Edible Schoolyard is a thriving national model for experiential learning in public schools nationwide. It hosts more than 1,000 visitors each year, from educators and health professionals to community advocates and legislators. The program has inspired, and offered active guidance to, several hundred kitchen and garden programs across the country. Nationally, and internationally, The Edible Schoolyard model has fostered discussion of educational, health, and environmental issues with policymakers, as well as numerous other nonprofit organizations and Federal agencies. The most visible program of its kind in the nation, The Edible Schoolyard has been featured on CBS, CNN, and Fox News; in documentary films and numerous books; and in People, Vogue, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist, among many others. The Foundation has welcomed interested parties as diverse as an inner-city school delegation from New York and, in late 2005, the Prince of Wales. In 2004, in partnership with the Berkeley Unified School District and the Center for Ecoliteracy, the Chez Panisse Foundation launched the School Lunch Initiative (SLI), a comprehensive strategy to transform the way children are educated about food, health, and the environment at the systems level. The SLI will benefit the 10,000 students in the Berkeley Unified School District's sixteen schools. The goals of the School Lunch Initiative are to: Provide delicious, healthy, freshly prepared meals using local, seasonal ingredients from sustainable farms to all of Berkeley's public school students. Integrate hands on learning opportunities in kitchen classrooms, instructional gardens, and school lunchrooms with academic and physical education programs. Renovate kitchens and cafeterias to accommodate on-site meal preparation, reduce packaging and waste, support recycling and composting, and enhance the dining experience. Collaborate with and educate community members, community groups, and agencies. Provide technical assistance and professional development to Berkeley Unified School District staff. Evaluate successes and document lessons learned.

Additional Comments from the Organization

The Edible Schoolyard program has received significant national media attention, and the Chez Panisse Foundation is supported by individuals throughout the country who are eager to encourage this kind of model project. We know that it serves as an inspiration to others, and can help people aspire to create similar programs appropriate to their resources and locale. Our greatest hope is that the School Lunch Initiative will provoke changes in national policies, programs, and funding that support healthier children and more sustainable agricultural practices.

GOALS AND RESULTS

Accomplishments for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2006

1. Over the years, our programs in the Berkeley Unified School District have made an impact on thousands of children. The School Lunch Initiative has made sweeping changes to the school meal program in all sixteen schools in the district, including: Eliminating 95 percent of the processed foods used in 16 district schools. Using local, seasonal foods in school meals, such as organic produce and bread from Berkeley vendors. Introducing grass-fed beef hamburgers and hot dogs into elementary and high schools. Instituting a mostly organic made-to-order salad bar in the high school. Replacing milk cartons at the high school with a dispenser to reduce waste. Introducing freshly prepared tamales and other Mexican foods from a local vendor into the schools on a regular basis. Replacing canned fruits and vegetables with fresh fruits and vegetables in all of the elementary schools.

Objectives for Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2006

1. Our short-term goals are to help the Berkeley Unified School District: Increase participation rates in school meal programs. Increase the use of local, seasonal foods from sustainable farms. Eliminate the use of high-fructose corn syrup. Eliminate the use of meat and dairy products that have been treated with hormones or antibiotics. Reduce waste through the development of composting and recycling programs. Train and educate food service personnel. Renovate and beautify school dining rooms. Implement interactive kitchen and garden programs in all of Berkeley's schools. Implement a pilot dining program in at least one middle school. Support the development of a curriculum based on food, health, and environmental literacy. Evaluate the impact of the School Lunch Initiative.
2. In the long term, we hope to bring about changes in national and state policy, including: Increased funding for kitchen and garden programs. Increased funding for the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program. Increased support for the replication and implementation of other model programs. Stronger connections between hunger, environmental, health, educational, and agricultural agendas. Increased support for local sustainable agriculture.

FINANCIAL DATA

Revenues and Expenses: Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2008

Balance Sheet: Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2008

Note: The balance sheet gives a snapshot of the financial health of an organization at a particular point in time. An organization's total assets should generally exceed its total liabilities, or it cannot long survive, but the types of assets and liabilities also must be considered. For instance, an organization's current assets (cash, receivables, securities, etc.) should be sufficient to cover its current liabilities (payables, deferred revenue, current year loan and note payments). Otherwise, the organization may face solvency problems. On the other hand, an organization whose cash and equivalents greatly exceed its current liabilities might not be putting its money to best use.

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