Welcoming More Cooks in the Kitchen
by Edwin Yowell, Slow Food NYC
The New York City Department of Education’s SchoolFood serves about 860,000 meals (including about 180,000 breakfasts) to over 1,000,000 students daily. To achieve this mind-boggling feat, they manage more than 6,000 employees working in about 1,400 schools.
It’s a big job. The Department of Education welcomes a little help now and then.
On
The roster of invitees included: The Food Network, HIP4Kids, Wellness in the Schools, Family Cook Productions, Liquori and Associates, Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project, The Institute of Culinary Education, NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Rachel Ray’s Yum-O!, Alice Waters’ Edible School Yard New York, City Harvest, Slow Food NYC, NY Coalition for Healthy School Food, and several restaurants.
Eric Goldstein, Chief Executive of the Office of School Support Services, of which SchoolFood is part, said in his opening remarks, “This is a time when there can’t be too many cooks in the kitchen.” Each of the organizations is contributing in its own way to the Department’s commitment, “to provide school environments that promote children’s health, well-being, and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating and physical activity” (The Department of Education Wellness Policy).
Goldstein outlined some near term DOE goals for SchoolFood including:
• increasing school lunch participation by one-half percent and school breakfast participation by one percent
• speeding menu development and testing
• further improving fresh produce purchasing (increasing the amount of regional produce), and implementing better “merchandising” of school food to students
• targeting increased participation goals in high school, where participation rates lags significantly behind elementary and middle school averages
From food, cooking, and nutrition education, to school gardens and farm stands, to cafeteria infrastructure and food procurement improvements, to menu development and culinary employee training, the organizations represented in the Forum are pitching in to help the Department of Education, having developed innovative strategies to improve the nutritional health and well-being of NYC students. Hence, through the initiation of the Culinary Partners Forum, SchoolFood is encouraging private organizations to become active partners and is seeking ways to facilitate their involvement by providing support, liaison, and coordination.
Increased communication among these partners can help by encouraging asset sharing, facilitating the effective allocation of resources, and identifying reproducible best practices. It’s a big kitchen with room for lots of cooks.
