In this episode of GridgeFridge, Dr. Jennifer Gaddis shares her journey discovering the world of food labor, her commitment to equitable access to nutritious meals, and the deeper systems behind how school food programs operate. From the politics of lunch lines to the potential for collective care infrastructure, Dr. Gaddis examines what it truly takes to nourish a nation.
Dr. Gaddis is an associate professor of civil society and community studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research uses critical feminist and ecological lenses to examine how food systems operate within schools and communities, uncovering the social, political, and economic forces that shape daily life. Beyond academia, Dr. Gaddis is an active public scholar—her work has been featured in major outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today and Teen Vogue.
She also serves on the advisory board of the National Farm to School Network and is an active member of the Healthy School Meals for All Wisconsin coalition. And if that wasn’t enough, Dr. Gaddis is also the author of The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools and Transforming School Politics Around the World.
Tune in to gain insights into Dr. Gaddis’s impressive career, school food in the U.S. vs other countries, and how we might reimagine food as a pillar of collective care.