BY Vincent Quan
The Daily Californian
Contribution Writer

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The woman credited with revolutionizing Berkeley public schools’ meal programs will fly to Oklahoma City this weekend to discuss her food production and distribution policies with school officials there.Ann Cooper, the Berkeley Unified School District’s director of nutrition services, was recruited to speak by Slow Food Oklahoma City, a branch of an organization aimed at breaking away from generic manufactured food production.Cooper entered her position with the Berkeley district a year ago and began transforming the public school food policy by largely eliminating the use of frozen food, using fresh food instead.

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said Cooper has led the district to produce about 80 percent of its food from scratch.

Cooper will speak at two events at the University of Central Oklahoma, which is co-sponsoring the conference. She was invited in part because of a book she published last year called “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children,” said Sheridan McCaffree, a member of the board of regents of Oklahoma Colleges, which oversees the university.

“Chef Ann was chosen because we liked her book,” McCaffree said in an e-mail. “We think that she has an inspiring story and a practical message.”

The university started as a teacher education school, and still focuses on issues in education, McCaffree said.

“It is interested in issues related to all aspects of public education including nutrition,” she said.

Cooper will speak to a sold-out 130-person lunch Saturday, and at another 75-person talk that was added because of high interest.

She will join Oklahoma school officials, including several food service directors who will discuss the history of their programs, such as the work of the Fit Kids Coalition which is aimed at reducing obesity rates in Oklahoma youth.

Cooper’s success in Berkeley has not been free from opposition from state officials, who often cite the difficulty of tracking nutrition facts in fresh food as the primary reason for choosing traditional packaged food, Coplan said.

“I have no idea (how Oklahoma will receive my proposals), but I am always optimistic,” Cooper said.

Contact Vincent Quan at vquan@dailycal.org.