When Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley asked Alice Waters to spiff up their menu, they had no idea what they were in for. Sure, she agreed to it, she told the audience at Dwell on Design today, but she also came back to them with a few more things she wanted to do…like tear up a parking lot, plant a garden, start composting, make the students and teachers start dining together, and build a new sustainable cafeteria. You know, just a few minor adjustments. But soon the school had not only tied that new menu into every aspect of the school, they had created a new community through food production and preparation. The Edible Schoolyard is the name of that project (with a pretty nice website, too). To spread awareness about it–and encourage other schools to adopt it–the group planted another garden on the Washington Mall.

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