Culinary Icon Alice Waters Meets Santa Barbara Elite to Improve How We Eat

On a lovely late summer afternoon from El Encanto, a Belmond Hotel’s perch on the Riviera, one might assume your focus would be on the enthralling city and seascape below. Instead, on August 19, all eyes looked back toward the fabled hotel, where legend of the slow food movement Alice Waters made her pitch for the Edible Schoolyard Project.

Waters, the force behind Berkeley’s culinary gem Chez Panisse, helped create the farm-to-table movement back in the 1970s. But providing delicious and nutritious dishes to restaurant patrons was merely the beginning of her life’s work. The one time Montessori teacher remains a powerful educator. And as she pointed out to the small if well-heeled crowd at the fundraiser, the Edible Schoolyard Project grew from one school in Oakland to more than 6,500 schools today.

“I’ve been talking about local, organic food for 53 years now, and the reason is not just about health and about addressing climate but it’s about taste, ripeness of food,” Waters said to the Independent after the event. “Now it’s time, really because of climate, to do this in our public schools. But if every school does this on the planet, purchases food that is local, organic, regenerative, we can teach the values of  the extraordinary taste of locally ripe food. And Santa Barbara is so poised to do this because of the work that has been done, like Earth Day, way back when. Santa Barbara has all that is needed to make this happen in the schools.”

Belle Hahn, chair for the event, hoped the afternoon, billed as Cocktails & Canapés, would not only raise awareness but also funds for what the group was calling “the delicious revolution.” Belle and her sister Lily Hahn founded Twin Hearts under the umbrella of Creative Visions with a mission that “by reconnecting the soil and soul we are healing the connection of humanity with the earth.”

The timing of the event was crucial, as Waters is taking her Food Climate Hope Campaign to Washington, D.C., prior to Congress taking up the next farm bill. Indeed, on October 19, Waters and University of California President Michael Drake will co-host an event at the Smithsonian in D.C. arguing for the idea of school-supported agriculture as a powerful and universal climate solution. Belle Hahn says, “We want to support Ms. Waters in her efforts to bring policy makers together for positive change.”

The El Encanto is also eager to support such efforts, and not just with a delicious spread of spreads to slather on house-made focaccia and pita, precisely fire-roasted vegetables, and more. “Fundraising is the gentle art of teaching the joy of giving,” Claudia Schou, El Encanto Marketing and Communications Manager, claims. “El Encanto’s commitment to sustainability, emphasizing food sourced from land, sea, and garden, aligns seamlessly with Alice Waters’s Edible Schoolyard Project. Supporting this initiative promotes environmental stewardship and cultivates a culture of giving among future generations.”

As proof of concept, the panel alongside Waters featured some of the hotel’s purveyors, introduced by executive chef Alex Bollinger. Devin Spencer, GM at the Cultured Abalone; Leslie Person Ryan, CEO of Sweet Wheel Farms; and Samantha Foxen, Tasting Room Manager for Donnachadh Family Wines (she also poured their chardonnay and pinot noir), made the case for how organic, healthy agriculture can happen right here in Santa Barbara County. But Ryan also shared some shocking statistics, claiming, “Eighty percent of the food we grow in the county is exported, and 90 percent of what we eat is imported.” That’s why she argued for “a necklace of farms in the county to provide for food security.”

Each attendee took home a copy of Waters’s 2021 book We Are What We Eat: A Slow Food Manifesto to help usher in that delicious revolution. And their generous support will help the Edible Schoolyard Project reach its goals (as stated on its website) of providing a free, sustainable school lunch for all K-12 students, made with food bought directly from farmers and ranchers who take care of their workers and their land, and thereby teach students the values of nourishment, stewardship, and community.