Ann Cooper Biography
Renegade Lunch Lady; Partner, Lunch Lessons, LLC; Interim
Nutrition Director, Boulder Valley School District; and Founder,
Food Family Farming Foundation’s Lunch Box Project
Chef Ann Cooper is a celebrated
author, chef, educator, and enduring advocate for better
food for all children. In a nation where children
are born with shorter estimated life expectancies than their
parents because of diet-related illness, Ann is a relentless
voice of reform by focusing on the links between food, family,
farming and children’s health and wellness.
 A
graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY,
Ann has been a chef for more than 30 years including positions
with Holland America Cruises, Radisson Hotels, Telluride Ski
Resort as well as serving as Executive Chef at the renowned Putney
Inn in Vermont. She has been featured in The New Yorker,
The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco
Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek , and Time
Magazine and has appeared on NPR’s ‘Living on
Earth,’ ABC’s Nightline, CNN, PBS’ To The
Contrary and the CBS Morning Show and many other
media outlets. Ann has shared her knowledge and experience
by speaking at the Smithsonian Institute, the National Restaurant
Association, the Heifer Foundation, Chefs Collaborative, the
International Association of Culinary Professionals and numerous
conferences. She has been honored by SLOW Food USA, selected
as a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow, and awarded an
honorary doctorate from SUNY Cobleskill for her work on sustainable
agriculture.
Ann is the author of four books: Lunch
Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children (2006), In
Mother’s Kitchen: Celebrated Women Chefs Share Beloved
Family Recipes (2005), Bitter
Harvest: A Chef’s Perspective on the Hidden Dangers in
the Foods We Eat and What You Can do About It (2000) and A
Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen: The Evolution of Women
Chefs (1998).
She is past president of The American Culinary Federation
of Central Vermont, and past president and board member
of Women's Chefs and Restaurateurs. She also served on
the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Standards
Board, a Congressional appointment, and was an Executive
Committee member of Chefs Collaborative - all in an effort
to raise awareness about the value of healthful, seasonal,
organic, and regional foods.
Ann’s research for and writing of A Bitter Harvest provided
a true epiphany for this always curious and proactive chef. No
longer could the environmental and health facts be ignored
when it came to producing food in this country. Ms Cooper’s
career shifted from primarily cooking to a path of cooking,
writing, and public speaking – all advocacy work for a healthier
food system. There is no doubt that Ann is an accomplished
chef, however her focus is now on using her skills and background
to create a sustainable model for schools nationwide to transition
any processed food based K-12 school meal program to a whole
foods environment where food is procured regionally and prepared
from scratch. In 2009, Ann founded Food
Family Farming Foundation (F3) as a nonprofit focusing
on solutions to the school food crisis. F3's pivotal project
is The Lunch Box -
a web portal that provides free and accessible tools, recipes
and community connections to support school food reform.
Chef Ann is happily doing the work of three as a Chef, Nutrition
Services Director, Consultant, Author, Public Speaker, and
Advocate because she sees a need for change and has the gifts
to help. She envisions a time soon when being a chef
working to feed children fresh, delicious, and nourishing food
will no longer be considered “renegade.”
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