Ann Cooper Email & Phone Number

The Chef Ann Foundation (CAF) was founded in 2009 by Ann Cooper, an internationally recognized author, chef, educator, public speaker, and advocate of healthy food for all children. Chef Ann has been a pioneering leader in the fields of school food, childhood nutrition, and sustainable agriculture, and, in a nation where kids are born with shorter estimated life expectancies than their parents due to diet-related disease, her vision was to create an organization that helps schools take action so that every child has daily access to fresh, healthy food. Today, the Chef Ann Foundation (CAF) carries out that vision by actively supporting school districts nationwide through grant programs and tools that help schools serve children healthy and delicious scratch-cooked meals made with fresh, whole food. To date, we’ve reached 4,997 schools and over 2,232,546 children.

Working toward nutritious/delcious food in schools for all children

Lunch Lessons LLC and CAF were both founded as vehicles to help change children's relationship to food and promote healthier food and eating for all of America's children. Lunch Lessons LLC is working with schools, school districts, government and parent organizations to improve food and education for children. CAF has collaborated with other foundations to build a virtual "Lunch Box" that contains the tools that are needed to make positive change in school meals across the country.

Helping to transition the district's school food to a nutritious/delicious model

When I took over as Director, I found a department serving the worst imaginable food. In the since then we have made tremendous progress in implementing positive change in our children’s relationship with food. I oversee 90 employees in 17 locations, who are responsible for feeding and educating our district’s 9,600 children. Our approach is characterized as a three-legged stool. We serve nutritious and delicious food in the cafeterias, offer hands-on experiential learning in cooking and gardening classes and teach the LIFE curriculum in our 4th and 5th grade science classrooms. During my tenure we have segued from 95% processed foods to 95% scratch cooking; we serve only hormone and antibiotic free dairy, we have salad bars in every school, we serve only whole-grain bread products, fresh fruits and vegetables at every lunch and have moved our procurement system toward local-sustainable foods.

I was awarded a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellowship which enabled me to do advocacy work in support of raising the quality of school lunch in America. Traveling the country, I have been speaking out about Changing the Way America Feeds its Children, as well as writing articles, being used as an expert in articles and presenting seminars for many diverse audiences.

Two Kellogg Foundation funded projects, School Food Plus and SOUL Food have been the basis of my work for FoodChange. My expertise has had a positive impact on the implementation of procuring, serving and eating fresh regional produce in Harlem's underserved community and in New York City schools, both public and charter.

Since leaving the Ross School I have been pursuing three career tracks which are all symbiotically aligned: The Chez Panisse Foundation, Berkeley CAWorking as a consultant to the foundation and in collaboration with the Center for Ecoliteracy, I have been supporting and promoting positive change within the foodservice of the Berkeley Unified School District. My expertise in nutrition, school lunch, foodservice, management practices and delicious food have been the basis for fomenting positive change within the district's foodservice as well as supporting the completion and implementation of the Dining Commons.

My vision for the school was exemplified by our mission: Life-long health and well-being are the hallmark tenants of our mission. Regional, Organic, Seasonal, Sustainable food is our mantra, which leads us to create healthy, nutritious, wholesome and flavorful food from the best ingredients possible. We then share these foods, nutrition education and the importance of balance to positively influence the choices made by our students, faculty and staff and the extended community of which we are all part. My responsibilities included: integrating agriculture, food, nutrition, food history and culture into the curriculum. We worked with and supported over 50 regional farmers and producers, and additionally we educated our staff, students and faculty about sustainable cuisine and hosted workshops and classes for the larger community in an effort to share our beliefs.

This is a once a year catering event. We fed 20,000 people at nine events, in seven locations (some of which are 10,000 feet up in the mountains), in five days, with an untrained staff and without a kitchen. I was responsible for all menu and recipe development, ordering, issuing, transporting, hiring, training, budgeting, organizing and preparing for all food and beverage functions. This event included coordination of rental equipment, rented "Semi-Kitchens", refrigerated trucks and store trailers. During the last five years, we worked with local farmers and producers, which enabled menus derived almost exclusively from the region.

I was responsible for all food operations at this facility, which included a 200 seat dining room with banquet seating for an additional 200. Areas of accountability included: quality, creativity and consistency of product, profitability, food cost, labor cost, menu planning, staffing, team building, computer and POS systems, as well as planning and design for facility expansion. With food sales in excess of a million and a half dollars financial management including cost of sales and inventory and payroll costs were major challenges. The Inn's reputation for serving regional sustainable cuisine is renowned and as a founding member of the Fresh Network we promoted the chef/farmer connection for over a decade.