Jennifer E . Gaddis
My research focuses on school food politics and systems change at multiple scales (local, state, national, and comparative international). I bring a care economy and labor-centered perspective to this work. My first book, The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools (University of California Press, 2019), shifted the national conversation about school food by telling the century-long history of the women and communities who created a new form of collective care infrastructure–what we now know as the National School Lunch Program–and by showing what is possible when we invest in scratch cooking, local sourcing, and higher quality jobs for school nutrition workers. My forthcoming book, co-edited with Sarah A. Robert, Transforming School Food Politics Around the World, is an edited collection that brings together scholars, practitioners, and students from nine countries to share creative strategies for pushing policy levers and shifting mindsets, lessons for building inclusive solidarity coalitions, and prefigurative glimpses of school food programs that align with a feminist politics of food and education.
I serve on the advisory board of the National Farm to School Network and am an active member of the Healthy School Meals for All (HSM4A) Wisconsin coalition. My students and I regularly partner with school districts, labor unions, and social movement organizations on community-based research and advocacy projects related to food justice in K-12 schools. Current projects include a statewide study of the Wisconsin school nutrition workforce, conducted in collaboration with the HSM4A Wisconsin coalition, research on socially disadvantaged farmers and value-added producers in Wisconsin’s farm-to-school economy, and the Feelings about Food project, which examines parents’ emotions, decisions, and engagement with school meals.
Address: 1300 Linden Drive
Madison, Wisconsin
53706
I serve on the advisory board of the National Farm to School Network and am an active member of the Healthy School Meals for All (HSM4A) Wisconsin coalition. My students and I regularly partner with school districts, labor unions, and social movement organizations on community-based research and advocacy projects related to food justice in K-12 schools. Current projects include a statewide study of the Wisconsin school nutrition workforce, conducted in collaboration with the HSM4A Wisconsin coalition, research on socially disadvantaged farmers and value-added producers in Wisconsin’s farm-to-school economy, and the Feelings about Food project, which examines parents’ emotions, decisions, and engagement with school meals.
Address: 1300 Linden Drive
Madison, Wisconsin
53706
less
InterestsView All (23)
Uploads
Books by Jennifer E . Gaddis
The Labor of Lunch aims to spark a progressive movement that will transform food in American schools, and with it the lives of thousands of low-paid cafeteria workers and the millions of children they feed. By providing a feminist history of the National School Lunch Program, Jennifer Gaddis recasts the humble school lunch as an important and often overlooked form of public care. Through vivid narration and moral heft, The Labor of Lunch offers a stirring call to action and a blueprint for school lunch reforms capable of delivering a healthier, more equitable, caring, and sustainable future.
Journal Articles by Jennifer E . Gaddis
Book Chapters by Jennifer E . Gaddis
examples of action research projects conducted on a variety of issues and in a variety of
contexts. The next section focuses on the design and conduct of action research. In that section, we offer design principles for conducting action research in community and organizational settings. This is followed by a case study of an action research partnership with a community organizing network working on multiple issues, including
mass incarceration, immigration, and transit. We conclude with a call for more transdisciplinary action research on pressing social issues.
The Labor of Lunch aims to spark a progressive movement that will transform food in American schools, and with it the lives of thousands of low-paid cafeteria workers and the millions of children they feed. By providing a feminist history of the National School Lunch Program, Jennifer Gaddis recasts the humble school lunch as an important and often overlooked form of public care. Through vivid narration and moral heft, The Labor of Lunch offers a stirring call to action and a blueprint for school lunch reforms capable of delivering a healthier, more equitable, caring, and sustainable future.
examples of action research projects conducted on a variety of issues and in a variety of
contexts. The next section focuses on the design and conduct of action research. In that section, we offer design principles for conducting action research in community and organizational settings. This is followed by a case study of an action research partnership with a community organizing network working on multiple issues, including
mass incarceration, immigration, and transit. We conclude with a call for more transdisciplinary action research on pressing social issues.