Jonathan J. Halperin
Jonathan J. Halperin
Designing Our Future. Together.

Teach Food!

From an idea in a living room six years ago, Mundo Verde PCS has grown into a nurturing environment for 538 students in Washington, DC, with two buildings, cisterns, raised vegetable beds, and nearly 100 full-time staff.  It is a school, yet so much more.  Serving students from PreK – 4th grade, Mundo Verde is an Ashoka Changemaker School and recipient of the Secretary of Education’s Green Ribbon School award.  I am honored to have been involved as a founding board member and now as designer and champion of the TeachFood! program.

Mundo Verde is developing leaders for the next generation – supporting stewards of our common future with a foundation of knowledge that comes from bilingual immersion, expeditionary learning and sustainability. With wellness of self and empathy for others at the core of that educational experience, enabling a love of learning and intellectual engagement, Mundo Verde is cultivating deep emotional, educational, and environmental intelligence.  So much more than a school, with dedicated parents and community partners, Mundo Verde is emerging as a national model for what it means to be a 21st century community school – and then some.

With TeachFood! we have inverted the traditional model of a kitchen as simply part of the school infrastructure and are redefining it as a classroom where students and celebrity chefs collaborate to learn – and teach -- through cooking.   The program concept and expansion is described elsewhere on this page as are the gifted chefs participating in TeachFood!

We are proud to be pioneering this new program, building on the work of food and school innovators from across the country.    We expect this program to continue evolving as we balance the core needs of our students and their families with our commitment to both community and excellence is education. 

If you believe food matters; 
if you believe great teachers change lives;
if you believe that teaching personal wellness is as important as teaching grammar;
if you want to sponsor part of our food, cooking, learning ecosystem; then please contact us (email: jonathan [at] jonathanjhalperin.com).
 
Join us.  Create with us.
Let’s serve up a whole new world.

Mundo Verde Teach Food

Mundo Verde Teach Food

 


 

Mundo Verde Campus
Merging tradition with innovation, the MV campus at P Street and North Capitol
includes the renovated JF Cook school building as well as our brand new building.  


La Casita
La Casita was designed specifically for our youngest students.


Raised Beds at Mundo VerdeRaised beds engage students in the hands-on experience of learning
what it means to plant, tend, and harvest our food.

Jerusalem

Jonathan Halperin asks important questions, forces you to think strategically with an outcome orientation, and isn’t afraid to totally re-imagine the way of doing something to achieve desired objectives. Working with Jonathan to plan our annual conference of thought-leaders in food and other impact programs of the James Beard Foundation for several years has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. We feel smarter and more effective for having worked with him.

more testimonials >

Jonathan J. Halperin's Vimeo Channel

 Jonathan J. Halperin Vimeo Channel