Jenny Breen, Chef, M Ed, MPH
Faculty in Culinary Nutrition
Education
University of MInnesota School of Public Health, 2011 MPH nutrition, Bank Street College of Education and Parson's school of Design, MS Education Administration, visual arts focus 1993
Washington University in St Louis, 1986
Professional Chef, Archibald Bush Leadership Fellow 2009, Cookbook author, University of Minnesota Press, 2011
Summary
Jenny Breen is a professional chef and advocate for sustainable food systems and food justice, and has worked directly with farmers and producers in the Twin Cities area, since the mid 1980’s. She was co-owner of Good Life Cafe and Catering, a sustainable food business, from 1996-2013. She is a 2009 Archibald Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow and completed her MPH in Nutrition at the University of Minnesota in 2011, while working to build strong networks within health and food systems for greater access to food, support for sustainable farming, and understanding of cooking as a health strategy. Her first cookbook , "Cooking up the Good Life," emphasizes local, seasonal whole foods cooking for families, and was released in April of 2011 from the University of Minnesota Press.
Jenny currently teaches three courses at the University of Minnesota, including an online undergraduate course called "Food Choices: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves" and a graduate level cooking course for health professional students called “Food Matters: Cook Like Your Life Depends on It," both through the Bakken Center. She also teaches an undergraduate nutrition cooking class, “A Food Systems Approach to Cooking,” in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS).
Jenny is the manager and program director of the teaching kitchen at The Redleaf Center for Family Wellbeing at Hennepin Healthcare. She contracts as a Public Health culinary nutrition educator with local health departments, school districts, and non profit food and farming organizations.
Expertise
Food systems and sustainability
Culinary nutrition (nutritious, plant based, whole foods seasonal cooking)
School food/farm to school
Awards & Recognition
Archibald Bush Leadership Fellow 2009
Teaching
Academic Interests and Focus
Sustainable food systems Nutrition Health/wellness Culinary arts
Courses
Food Matters-cook as though your life depends on it (CSpH 5905)
Cooking on a student's budget (FScN 2002)