SANTA BARBARA, CA (May 2, 2024) – The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts announces Alice Waters, renowned chef, author, food activist, and founder and owner of Chez Panisse, as the tenth recipient of the Julia Child Award. A champion of local, organic agriculture for over four decades, Waters will utilize the award’s corresponding $50,000 grant to support The Edible Schoolyard Project, which she founded 30 years ago at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California.
Waters will be presented with the 2024 Julia Child Award at the annual Food History Gala, held in association with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, October 17. This event kicks off the museum’s Smithsonian Food History Weekend, featuring conversations and cooking demonstrations celebrating the legacy of Julia Child around the themes of culinary education and community empowerment through food.
With this grant, The Julia Child Foundation marks a milestone of giving $500,000 over the past decade to food-related non-profits of the Julia Child Award recipients’ choosing. In total, the Foundation has awarded more than $3 million to culinary-focused non-profit organizations across the country in the last decade.
“Our mission is to honor and further Julia’s legacy, centering on the importance of understanding where good food comes from, how that has a direct impact on what makes for good food, and the value of cooking,” said Eric W. Spivey, Chairman of The Julia Child Foundation. “Alice’s work is an extension of these fundamentals that Julia embodied, educating communities on the importance of supporting local farmers and how these relationships are at the core of what makes for good food. I could not think of a more fitting individual to receive the award in its momentous tenth year.”
Applying the Montessori philosophy of learning-by-doing, Waters’ Edible Schoolyard Project uses organic gardens and on-site kitchen classrooms to teach all academic subjects. The Project’s model has been replicated in over 6,500 schools around the world. The Project also serves as the genesis for The Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education and Regenerative Agriculture, which is creating a model for global procurement of organic regenerative food in public schools. Waters calls this School Supported Agriculture.
“It is incredible to witness students’ joy and commitment to local, seasonal, and organic ingredients through the Edible Schoolyard Project,” said Alice Waters. “This care and curiosity of where our food comes from is representative of Julia’s ethos and will change our future food system for the better. It’s imperative that we work on creating this change by providing tools, resources, and the knowledge to do so. This grant affords us further opportunity to create this change and better our food system in more equitable ways.”
Alice Waters has been Vice President of Slow Food International since 2002. She conceived and helped create the Yale Sustainable Food Project in 2003, and the Rome Sustainable Food Project at the American Academy in Rome in 2007. She was inducted into the French Legion of Honor in 2010, and in 2015 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, proving that eating is a political act and that the table is a powerful means to social justice and positive change. Most recently, Alice was awarded the honor of “Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” in 2019, and in 2022 she received the Henry Ford Society’s inaugural Carver Carson Award recognizing achievements and innovations in environmental protection and agriculture. In 2023, she received the No Kid Hungry Humanitarian Award from Share Our Strength in Los Angeles, and this year she was honored with the Dr. Maria Montessori Ambassador Award.
In celebration of the Julia Child Award’s tenth year, the Foundation is hosting a cross-country dinner series, traveling to past recipients’ hometowns leading up to the Food History Gala in October. To date, the Foundation has visited Houston, the hometown of Toni Tipton-Martin (2021), Chicago, the hometown of Rick Bayless (2016), and New York, the hometown of Grace Young (2022) and Danny Meyer (2017), with upcoming events in Madison, CT with Jacques Pépin; Washington, D.C. with José Andrés and Danielle Nierenberg; and Los Angeles with Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. To learn more about the Foundation and its work, visit juliachildfoundation.org. To learn more about the traveling dinner series and the Julia Child Award, visit juliachildaward.com.
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About The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts
The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts was created by Julia in 1995 and became operational in 2004. Its mission is to honor and further Julia’s legacy, which centers on the importance of understanding where food comes from, what makes for good food, and the value of cooking. Headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, the Foundation is a non-profit which makes grants to support research in culinary history, scholarships for professional culinary training, food writing and media as well as professional development and food literacy programs. Since becoming operational, the Foundation has made more than $2.5 million in grants to other nonprofits. For more information, visit: juliachildfoundation.org.
About Food History at the National Museum of American History
Through research, programs, and collections, the Smithsonian Food History project at the National Museum of American History welcomes everyone to participate in exploring the history and ongoing significance of food cultures in the United States. By engaging in activities and conversations about food history, Museum audiences will gain a greater understanding of the roles they play, individually and collectively, in shaping the future of food production, distribution, and consumption. In addition to its foundational exhibition, “FOOD: Transforming the American Table,” the Museum has developed a diverse menu of programs and demonstrations that bring audiences together, virtually and in person, for relevant discussions that start with history and expand to the present and future of American food. As the home of Julia Child’s kitchen for 20 years, the National Museum of American History is committed to examining the impact of food, drink and agriculture on American history. The culmination of the museum’s food history offerings this year will be a hybrid event hosted by the museum Nov. 4 that will accompany the presentation of the 2021 Julia Child Award by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. More details to be released later this summer. Join us around the table and learn more at http://s.si.edu/FoodHistory. Most of the Smithsonian museums have recently reopened. For more information, visit http://americanhistory.si.edu.