Jennifer Elaine Gaddis
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About Jennifer
Gaddis' research focuses on school food politics, labor, and systems change at multiple scales from local to global. She brings a care economy and labor-centered perspective to this work. Dr. Gaddis partners with international collaborators to understand the global human ecology of school food systems and also conducts community-engaged research in Wisconsin and across the U.S. She writes op-eds for popular media outlets, frequently speaks with public audiences, and actively collaborates with practitioners and policy think tanks, including through advisory roles with the National Farm to School Network and IPES-Food.
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Notes that school cooks and cafeterias are not a cost to be minimized, but rather the greatest allies of the movement to bring "real" food to American school kitchens and cafeterias. Explains the need to empower them to cook fresh, healthy, and sustainable school lunches for the nation's children.
Proposes an agenda for addressing social justice and ecological issues within public school-lunch programs by reorganizing school food provisioning in ways that maximize care for both people and the planet.
Defines action research as an approach that orchestrates cyclical processes of action and research that are simultaneously contributing to addressing practical concerns related to social issues and to the goals of social science. Includes a discussion of the design and conduct of action research, along with several case study examples.
Presents several examples of how activists and academics are partnering to advance food justice. Includes discussion of common challenges and recommends that potential partners: connect to their personal experience; build trust; develop common strategies; build on previous community efforts; and, appreciate power differences and reciprocate accordingly.
Provides a lesson plan for a classroom-based activity that could be used in high school or college classrooms to teach students about food systems issues. Includes several tasting activities that encourage students to use multiple senses (e.g., taste, sight, touch) to explore differences in seemingly uniform "commodities" like milk and chocolate.
Tells the story of why US school kitchens do so little on-site cooking. Highlights several worker-led campaigns to bring "real food and real jobs" to American school kitchens and cafeteria.