Lunch Lady Courage

High school is a hustle. At least it is in Lunch Lady Courage, Cornerstone’s third play in The Hunger Cycle. When Ana, aka Lunch Lady Courage, arrives at an urban campus with her food cart of healthy "Grab n Go" meals, she doesn’t expect to find a shadow economy. Donuts and candy sales raise funds for student clubs, an enterprising student peddles homemade tortas from his backpack, and a teacher sells Hot Cheetos to pay for classroom necessities. California spends nearly seven times more on its prison inmates than its K-12 students, and childhood obesity numbers are skyrocketing – so what’s a lunch lady to do? Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children and the people working and learning in Los Angeles schools, Lunch Lady Courage explores what happens when one cafeteria worker battles for the future and health of her own children, and the hundreds she serves every day.