#WomenCrushWednesday Alice Waters & The Edible Schoolyard Project

Alice Waters

Born April 28th, 1944

Alice Waters is most famous for founding the Edible Schoolyard Project. She owns Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant that is famous for organic, locally-grown ingredients and California cuisine. Waters studied abroad in France in college, and this is where her love of market fresh cooking came from. Upon returning to the States she was a political activist for a short time and this led to her food activism. After graduating, Waters returned to Europe and traveled to Turkey, France and London. She founded the Chez Panisse Foundation in 1996, whose mission is to transform public education by using food to teach, nurture, and empower young people. Waters is a crusader for organic food as she believes it enhances the quality and taste of the food and beneficial to the environment and people's health. 

The Edible Schoolyard Project was established in 1995 at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. Students at the middle school are involved in growing, harvesting and preparing the foods from the garden. Waters also developed the School Lunch Initiative which aims to bring school children into a new relationship with food by making a healthy, fresh, sustainable meal a part of the school day. There are currently 5 other Edible Schoolyard Projects across the country in New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Greensboro, North Carolina.

Waters encouraged President Bill Clinton to plant an organic garden at the White House, but unfortunately it did not happen. First Lady Michelle Obama planted her organic garden in 2009 with objectives from her Let's Move Campaign. 

Waters has written 11 books, won a dozen honors & awards and serves as board member for various organizations. She has one daughter, Fanny and has been married twice. Waters is an inspiration in organic and healthy school lunch activism. She is relentless in her effort to provide all children across America with knowledge of where their food comes from, harvesting and preparation. Her vision will continue to shine through for the future as people are fed up with GMO's, fast food, chemicals and coloring in food and above all, finding a way out of childhood obesity.  

References: 

http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=alicewaters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Waters

Compassion-- The Maulism Movement {My Spiritual Journey}

Compassion

It is a word often used, overused and miss-practiced.

Compassion is the understanding or empathy for the suffering of others. This definition is very broad.

It says others, but I feel that you must first love yourself to have compassion for yourself AND everyone else. You must understand your suffering, mistakes, bad days and problems. Feel compassion for yourself and embrace this change. Don't harm yourself or beat yourself up. Love yourself, learn, grow and adapt to practice compassion with yourself. They say you cannot love until you love yourself. 

To have compassion for someone else comes naturally for me. Growing up I always asked my parents, "why can't they see it the other way, why can't they put themselves in that person's shoes and change their opinion?" I guess having compassion for other people is not everyone's cup of tea, especially those greedy CEO's and people in power. It seems that they forget to put themselves in other people's shoes and they surrender to not caring about what happens to people less fortunate. 

One of the Pillars of Living is having compassion for ALL living beings. Humans, animals, plants...even your boss, the person you dislike the most and all the beings living in terrible conditions. If you do not understand what someone is going through then put yourself in that person's shoes and think and reflect. An important thing to remember is to count your blessings everyday and realize that not everyone has even the most basic needs. You may complain about frivolous  consumerism ideals while whole families go without dinner tonight, tomorrow, and the next night. Thousands of people live off pennies a day in other countries. Here in the United States, children go hungry as well and do not have health insurance. 

Everyone has a story and everyone is on a journey. We all have our own struggles. Someone's struggle may seem unimportant to you, but it is the biggest challenge of their life. Your struggle may seem this way to someone else. And I'm talking about real struggles here. Not things like you you really want an expensive fur coat or that your having a bad hair day or you messed up a manicure. I'm talking life struggles like living in a landfill, being sold into the sex trade and not having clean water or food to eat every day.

I'm also talking animals. Not I'm not one to preach my beliefs, and I don't preach my Meat is Murder stance, but maybe I should. Maybe I should start opening discussions about my beliefs to get other people to talk to me. We need compassion for animals. You need compassion for animals. They are bread, raised and murdered for your consumption. They have feelings, emotions and attachments just like we do but yet that is all pushed aside for your benefit. No one cares how the animals feel because they can't talk...right? They are second class citizens. I'm talking about the BRUTAL MURDER of the meat industry and the pain and suffering these animals go through. They have a heartbeat but we kill them and they can't even fight back. We don't even THANK THEM for loosing their life to feed us, we just act like it is GIVEN to us. Have compassion for the animals, for all living creatures big and small. Put yourself in the animals shoes and then watch some videos on the meat industry. Have compassion for ALL LIVING CREATURES. I'm not going to tell you to stop eating meat. I'm telling you to do some research and learn why you must have compassion for the animals. Have compassion for the animals in the circus, the animals shot for fun and the animals murdered for your consumption. 

You must have compassion for the plants and nature. They are living beings too. Plants and nature get overlooked because we take them for granted. Do you remember science class? Everything on this planet works together to survive. Plants may be at the bottom of the chain, but they are the most important aspect of the cycle. Trees provide us with clean air, water provides us with nourishment, animals eat the plants to survive, and they do all this with no force from us. We on the other hand, destroy thousands and thousands of rain forest  pollute the skies with toxins, and dump waste in the ocean. This is our only planet, please, please, please, show some compassion for it and stand up for your Earth! Don't let a useless pipeline be placed where it will cause endless amounts of damage, don't support dumping, pollution, deforestation, or ANYTHING that will destroy the precious gift of nature. 

Have compassion for ALL living beings. Catch and release fish, trap mice humanely and let them go. Know where your meat comes from, know what environmental threats pose and always know what the other side is feeling, experiencing and loosing. You can help. You don't have to donate a dollar a day. You have to love all beings equally and help out those that need it. The Dali Lama said,  "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." It may not lead to world peace and there will be those that cannot and will not be phased by practicing compassion  I hope there are only a few of these people because I believe that is it human nature to practice compassion  I think that some of us have forgotten it or have pushed it aside in pursuit of attaining personal goals. Spread the word of compassion, practice it yourself and never forget that the Spirit will reward you for your humanity. Be humble, be kind, be generous, be understanding. This is the greatest gift you can give yourself. 

~This is the end of the Compassion Lecture~

~I would love to hear your thoughts, experiences or questions~

xoxo Miss Maully