Dana Woldow, crusader for healthy school lunches in S.F.
Dana Woldow never met a can of soda pop she didn’t loathe.
Ms. Woldow, a nationally known public school watchdog, spent decades trying to rid California schools of the twin threats of junk food purveyors and profit-driven school reformers intent on turning public schools into private investments.
“Soda, potato chips, snack cakes, ice cream, french fries,” she liked to say, rattling off the old snack bar menu at the San Francisco middle school her children attended. “Garbage!”
Ms. Woldow, who died Monday in her San Francisco home at age 65, became an expert on school food policy, and many of the improvements over the past decades in San Francisco school lunchrooms can be traced to her dogged, determined efforts on behalf of schoolchildren.
Margaret Brodkin, the former director of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, called her longtime friend a “national heroine for the school food movement.”
“She countered every lie by the fast-food industry, everything that schools did to stigmatize kids needing a free lunch, and put the focus squarely on getting the best nutrition possible for kids, and getting it paid for,” Brodkin said. “She was tough.”
Ms. Woldow was also a determined foe of controversial, for-profit Edison Schools Inc. and its failed attempt to gain a foothold in San Francisco and the U.S. nearly two decades ago.
A tall, slim, wiry woman with a wicked sense of humor, Ms. Woldow acknowledged that her work was possible because she had the time and resources to do it, pro bono.
“I have many advantages, so I don’t need to fear losing my job for speaking out,” she once said. “I can barge onto a high school campus, for example, and just wander around looking for junk food vending. I don’t need to fear reprisals from anyone because, really, what could they do?”
A native of Philadelphia and a 1973 graduate of Brown University, Ms. Woldow worked as a cook and a portrait photographer before moving to San Francisco in 1977 and becoming involved in public schools.
She enjoyed travel, particularly to France, and she took pleasure in weekly trips to the San Francisco Symphony with her husband, San Francisco lawyer Mark Schreiber. She was an accomplished chef, particularly with a wok, and she was a member of the celebrated Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international club for women who take their food seriously. She was also a passionate admirer of owls.
In 2007, Ms. Woldow was awarded the Jefferson Award from the American Institute for Public Service. The Dana Woldow Grove at Balboa High School was dedicated in 2010 to honor her work in improving school menus.
Ms. Woldow had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and endured her illness with the kind of quiet patience she rarely exhibited in her version of old-fashioned school cafeteria food fights.
“She was a funny, faithful and generous friend,” said longtime former San Francisco school board member Jill Wynns. “She trained herself to be a statistical analyst. The exuberance of for-profit school management took a big hit, thanks to Dana and her friends.”
Ms. Woldow is survived by her husband of 37 years; and three sons, Max of San Francisco, Samuel of Mountain View and Jacob of Seattle, all graduates of San Francisco public schools.
Memorial donations may be made to Meals on Wheels. Plans for a memorial service are pending.