More than 200 lunch advocates gathered at the Project Lunch Challenge last Friday at Marin Academy in San Rafael. Teens Turning Green and the Project Lunch Stakeholders gathered an esteemed group of participants such as Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (pictured above with Executive Director of Marin Organic Helge Hellberg and Novato's Garden of Eatin' Project Director David Haskell) Assemblymember Jared Huffman, Novato Unified School District's Food and Nutritional Services Director Miguel Villareal, Marin Academy Teacher Mark Stefanski, Food Service Manager of Straus Family Creamery Anna Kharbas, Marin Organic Executive Director Helge Hellberg (pictured above), and The Renegade Lunch Lady Ann Copper. Copper was one of six local chefs partnering with students in a friendly competition to make the best tasting and highest quality lunch meal on a meager $1.2o per person (the current amount allotted California School Chef per student).
The event successfully united local and national politicians, school administrators and policy makers, food service directors, non-profit members, nutritionists, restaurant and school chefs, organic farmers, teachers, parents, and students - 200 of us - cooking, sharing, eating and envisioning a brighter future for school lunch together.
