school food

School Food: Alexa Delwiche (Ep. 19)

“As the food movement has gotten stronger and stronger, and people have been asking many more questions, not just about, where is my food coming from? But, how is it produced? Who’s being harmed along the way? Food service directors have been asking those same questions.” -Alexa Delwiche

When you think about school food, certain repressed memories might bubble to the surface – boneless BBQ rib patties, mystery loaf, blocks of government cheese, or expired chocolate milk. But today’s food consumers are proving to be a little more savvy than those of us who fell for ketchup as a vegetable back in the day. Students and their parents are asking not only about the quality of the food they’re eating, but also about the choices food purchasers are making when it comes to how this food is produced.

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, Raj Patel, Tom Philpott and Rebecca McInroy speak with Alexa Delwiche about ethics when it comes to food purchasing and the school system. Delwiche is the executive director of the Center for Good Food Purchasing (CGFP). The work she and her team are doing in the Los Angeles public school system serves as a model for ethical food purchasing for the nation.