Jennifer Gaddis

My research focuses on school food politics and systems change at multiple scales from local to global. I bring a care economy and labor-centered perspective to this work, as in my award-winning first book The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools (University of California Press, 2019), and through my role as principal investigator of a $1.5 million USDA-funded project on the school food workforce.

In addition to ongoing community-engaged research in Wisconsin and across the U.S., I am increasingly partnering with international collaborators to understand the global human ecology of school food systems. This includes my co-edited volume Transforming School Food Politics around the World (open access through MIT Press, 2024) and current research with the Rockefeller Foundation on regenerative school meals.

As an engaged scholar, I write op-eds for popular media outlets, frequently speak with public audiences, and actively collaborate with practitioners and policy think tanks, including through advisory roles with the National Farm to School Network and IPES-Food.

I have been recognized for excellence in research and public outreach with awards from the National Women’s Studies Association, the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society, the Association for the Study of Food and Society, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and Gourmand International. I am also a 2024 recipient of the UW–Madison Distinguished Teaching Award.

Selected Publications

Gaddis, J., & Robert, S. A., Eds. (2024). Transforming School Food Politics Around the World. MIT Press. https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edited-volume/5789/Transforming-School-Food-Politics-around-the-World

Dower, B., & Gaddis, J. (2021). Relative to the landscape: Producer cooperatives in native food sovereignty initiatives. Journal of Co-Operative Organization and Management, 9(2), 100147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2021.100147

Gaddis, J., & Jeon, J. (2020). Sustainability transitions in agri-food systems: Insights from South Korea’s universal free, eco-friendly school lunch program. Agriculture and Human Values, 37, 1055-1071. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-020-10137-2

Gaddis, J. (2019). The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools. University of California Press. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300033/the-labor-of-lunch

Featured Media

• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), School Lunch
• AJ+ Youtube, What’s Wrong with School Lunch in the U.S.?
• The Takeaway, WNYC Studios (NPR), School Principles: School Lunch
• Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas (HBO), Private Sector Problems

See Also

• “Hungry for Good Jobs: The State of Wisconsin’s School Nutrition Workforce,” report prepared in collaboration with the Healthy School Meals for All Wisconsin Coalition, June 2023
• Op-eds
  • The Guardian, Organic cheese and free lunch for all: What the U.S. can learn from other nations about better school meals
  • The Washington Post, Scratch cooking is better for kids, school food workers, and supply chains
  • USA Today, Cafeteria workers need support during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The New York Times, Why are you still packing lunch for your kids?
  • The Washington Post, It’s long past time to give every child free lunch at school: Only this will end lunch shaming