337: Molly Beverly on Lunch as an Academic Subject.
Taking school lunches very seriously.
Chef Molly Beverly is Prescott, Arizona’s creative food activist and teacher. As Prescott College Food Service Director and Chef for 9 years, she built the food service into a showcase of sustainable, educational, and tasty food.
Molly has taught cooking since 1976 to adults and children at Prescott and Yavapai Colleges, most recently Edible and Delicious Science for Kids. She is a regular writer for Edible Phoenix and she operates a small organic farm and catering business. As Chair of Slow Food Prescott, she champions school gardens and sustainable food education.Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for podcast updates
In This Podcast:
When you have a passion for food and teaching and helping your community as well as being creative and you find a group that melds all three, then you are going to find great pleasure in sharing about this group. Chef Molly Beverly tells us about Slow Food USA and their concept of changing our mindset about school lunches. We hear about The Ark of Taste, Food Literacy, and the Slow Food Movement. You might get hungry during this podcast!
Listen in and learn about:
- She started cooking at a young age
- Became a teacher and found an opening to teach cooking at Yavapai College
- Has lived in the same place for several decades and is really connected to her community
- Slow Food – the international organization
- Chapters all over the world
- The benefits of being in a chapter in a small town
- The concepts and beliefs behind the slow food movement
- Some of the unique communities within the organization
- The Ark of Taste
- Mesquite – the flour and the flavoring
- Food literacy and a way to counter the mass produced and hyper-processed foods
- Alice Water’s concept of School Lunch as an Academic Subject
- The work of Alice and her Slow Food Movement
“What if we could feed all children a free school lunch prepared from scratch, produced from local, sustainable ingredients that farmers are paid fairly for, and for a full school lunch hour treated as an academic subject” –Alice Waters
- Check out the video at – edibleschoolyard.org
- The sample vision of a school lunch event
- The menu of local foods that were included
- Some Kid-Friendly recipes can be found HERE on our blog
- Check out the SchoolLunchInitiative.org
- How the kids are better for having the experience of working with real foods
As well as:
- Her failure – She loves the reality that chefs have to deal with failures constantly. She never runs out of food now and always has extra
- Her success – The Prescott College job as a Food Service Director
- Her drive – She loves being creative – coming up with an idea and making it work
- Her advice – Grow something, cook something, and share the experience with children
Molly’s Book recommendations:
Check out the Slow Food USA Website for books you can download HERE
Native American Gardening: Stories, Projects, and Recipes for Families
How to reach Molly:
Email: prescottaz@slowfoodusa.org
UrbanFarm.org/SlowFoodPrescott
This episode was sponsored by Health IQ. Visit them at healthiq.com/urbanfarm to support our show and to see if you qualify for lower insurance rates.
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