Calendar Editor's Note: Helen De Michiel is an independent filmmaker and Albany resident. Find out more about how she got the idea for this film in a by .
Helen De Michiel and Sophie Constantinou in PersonWith special guests Bonnie Christensen (Executive Chef, Berkeley School Lunch Initiative), Joy Moore (school lunch reform advocate), Stephen Rutherford (John Muir Elementary School), Charlotte Biltekoff (UC Davis departments of Food Science and Technology and American Studies).
When kids are strung out on sugary snacks and industrial niblets, attentiveness in the classroom is a wreck. This simple revelation inspired a diverse group of Berkeley parents to challenge the entrenched notion of what foods should be served in the schools. Their resolute efforts led to the Berkeley School Lunch Initiative, a radical ideal that substitutes healthy organic meals for the previous concoctions of sweeteners, oils, and processed comestibles. The result, to say the least, has been wholesome. Local filmmakers Helen De Michiel and Sophie Constantinou saw the Berkeley School District’s nutritional efforts as a model deserving wider dissemination. Through webisodes, an impending documentary, and media socials like this event, The Lunch Love Community Documentary Project engages not with just food issues related to youth, but with the broader consideration of how localized activism inspires larger systemic change. The filmmakers will screen webisodes capturing key aspects of Berkeley’s innovative lunch program, as well as introduce prominent food reform advocates to encourage a dialogue surrounding food literacy. Keep watching BAM/PFA’s website as information related to The Lunch Love Community Documentary Project organically grows.
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—Steve Seid
Originally appeared on the BAM/PFA Film Programs website.
