[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 18950]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ALICE WATERS

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating Alice Waters, groundbreaking chef, restaurant owner, 
author, and activist who was recently awarded the National Humanities 
Medal by President Obama for her pioneering role in the sustainable 
food movement.
  As a student at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1960s, 
Alice developed a passion for social activism. While studying abroad in 
Paris one semester, she began to realize the impact food can have on 
our daily lives. Exposed to lively discussions over fresh, locally 
sourced home-cooked meals, a simple yet revolutionary idea took root, 
and in 1971 she and a group of friends opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley.
  It was a concept that took off almost immediately: fresh, local, and 
organic food that changed with the seasons. As the restaurant's success 
grew, Alice and her staff created a network of local farmers and 
producers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture supplied Chez 
Panisse's fresh ingredients, helped to pioneer farm-to-table-cuisine, 
and served as a model for future generations of restaurant owners.
  Alice's influence spread far beyond the kitchen. In 1996, she created 
the Edible Schoolyard Project to help schools develop community 
gardens, so students can better understand the origins of their food 
and how to create fresh, local, and healthy meals. Today there are more 
than 5,000 Edible Schoolyard Project locations worldwide, and the 
effort helped inspire First Lady Michelle Obama to plant a vegetable 
garden on the South Lawn of the White House.
  Alice has said that ``good food is a right, not a privilege,'' and 
her work is helping to make that a reality. She has revolutionized the 
way our country cooks, eats, and thinks about food--and we are all 
better because of it.
  I am proud to congratulate my friend, Alice Waters, on this 
incredible honor and wish her many more years of continued success.

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