Jennifer Gaddis is an Associate Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on school food politics and systems change. As a public scholar, she has written guest essays for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, and Teen Vogue, and appeared on NPR, HBO, and AJ+.
Dr. Gaddis brings a care economy and labor-centered perspective to school food politics. Her 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 showing what is possible when we invest in scratch cooking, local sourcing, and higher quality jobs for school nutrition workers. Her 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.
Dr. Gaddis serves on the advisory board of the National Farm to School Network and is an active member of the Healthy School Meals for All (HSM4A) Wisconsin coalition. She and her students 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.
Dr. Gaddis brings a care economy and labor-centered perspective to school food politics. Her 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 showing what is possible when we invest in scratch cooking, local sourcing, and higher quality jobs for school nutrition workers. Her 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.
Dr. Gaddis serves on the advisory board of the National Farm to School Network and is an active member of the Healthy School Meals for All (HSM4A) Wisconsin coalition. She and her students 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.
Public Education and Engagement Opportunities
Dr. Gaddis provides expertise, consultations, and presentations to a range of audiences, including media outlets, policymakers, nonprofits, labor unions, schools, youth organizations, parent-teacher groups, museums, community centers, and more. She is available to speak on the following topics:
- School food politics (history and current)
- Organizing for school food systems change
- School food workers and high road labor practices
- Farm-to-school, scratch cooking, and universal free school meals
- Community-based participatory research
To book an interview, talk, or workshop, and for all other inquiries, please contact: jgaddis@wisc.edu.
- School food politics (history and current)
- Organizing for school food systems change
- School food workers and high road labor practices
- Farm-to-school, scratch cooking, and universal free school meals
- Community-based participatory research
To book an interview, talk, or workshop, and for all other inquiries, please contact: jgaddis@wisc.edu.
© Jennifer E. Gaddis, 2023. All rights reserved.