Kathleen de Chadenèdes

Director

Phone: (805) 565-7550 x 109
Email: [email protected]
Fax: (805) 565-7554

Kathleen began her career in the food service industry at age 11 selling home-baked pies in her Chicago neighborhood.  She picked the fruit from backyard trees, made the pies according to her grandmother’s secret recipe, and delivered the pies by bicycle.  Little did she know that this early effort would serve as a model for her life’s work: making delicious food from locally-sourced ingredients in a way which honors the environment and the dignity of those who produce it and consume it.

Kathleen identifies herself first as a Chef, and secondly as a Sustainable Food Advocate.  Her degree in Agriculture with a focus on Food Science and Health and Nutrition directed her food oriented career path.  After years of cooking, she eventually landed in her last position as the Food Service Manager for the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County.  There Kathleen ensured compliance with the federally funded Child and Adult Care Food Program for 45 child care centers in eight counties.  During her three years in the position, she eliminated all processed foods from the menus, conducted hands-on training with her cooks, and increased overall program efficiency by transitioning away from paper records to digital files and making sure that all of her employees were computer literate.

In San Luis Obispo County, Kathleen served on the Childhood Obesity Prevention Task Force.  She was also the Founding President of the Central Coast Agriculture Network, and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Cal Poly Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium.

As the Director of the s’Cool Food Initiative, Kathleen looks forward to working with the s’Cool Food team and community partners to create a community of children and families who are knowledgeable about the connection with the food that they eat and their well-being.