Feeding the Body Politic

Through struggles and controversy, Berkeley, California parents put the democratic process to work, one neighbour, one politician, one piece of legislation at a time. Feeding the Body Politic is part of a larger project called Lunch Love Community.

How does a community of passionate parents, community organisers, public health experts, cooks and politicians come together to create enduring and systemic change on the local level? How do we talk about health and culture, identity and responsibility through cuisine and nutrition? Lunch Love Community explores these questions through a mosaic of twelve short films looking at issues around food reform, health, community sustainability and citizen-based democracy. The shorts (ranging from 3 minutes to 13 minutes) zoom in on intimate and revealing stories surrounding school lunch transformation and cooking-gardening education, and zoom out to the broader social issues and consequences around these changes. The blend of children and youth, education and food ignites passions, creative energy and idealism: how we teach our children to eat and understand food is the embodiment of how we transmit values to the next generation.
by Helen De Michiel USA 2014 10’