I grew up eating school lunch, and raised three kids in NYC, one in the 80s-90s and two in the 2000s. The latter two I wouldn't even let eat it, it had gotten so bad. I applaud the effort to make changes. Some seem a little unnecessarily fussy though, if the chef spent more time around kids he wouldn't try to get them to eat Kale salad. Include salad for kids who want it, but cook some vegetables too.
I served on the board of a publicly funded dare care center who cooked freshly every day. The built the kitchen with a grant, and hire people who knew how to cook. To afford to cook fresh whole foods on the City per lunch budget, vegetarian meals were served about twice a week. The kids loved the food, and I ate it myself on occasion.
As someone who loves to cook and bake, and who grew up in a small Midwest town, I find this and similar articles headshaking.
Get over yourselves! Kale? Yuck! Sloppy joes, spaghetti and meatballs, baked chicken, hamburgers. Add a salad bar if warranted. Done.
And get back to teaching our children. Please.
3
Sanjay Gupta also went to a school in Italy, and talked about children’s lunches. Also there, food is cooked fresh with vegetables, fruit, etc. He even interviewed two kids from the US who are living there and they liked the food better there. This isn’t a foreign concept. Someone mentioned Bourdain in his Lyon episode where he and Daniel Boulud went to his elementary school.
How did school lunches become so fancy, and why? I’m in my 70s and make myself the same simple lunches I took to school many years ago: a sandwich, an apple or tangerine and a cookie.
Eating like this keeps weight down and life simple. I’d like to see it become standard for school cafeterias.
1
@Mary Ann
School lunch in the Bronx constitutes the main nutrition that many kids from food insecure households get.
3
There is something to be asked about the carrier change of the chef of one of the presumably best restaurants of the West to designing school lunches.
It is difficult to make children acquire good taste, if they continue to be exposed to poor cuisine at home. Children are unlikely to persuade the parents to change their gustatory habits.
Also, I would recommend to Mr. Giusti, when in the kitchen, to have his facial hair covered.
2
I was recently enrolled in a residential Masters program in the UK. Much of the plant-based diet was grown on-site in the Horticultural program by staff and students. All students and faculty had shifts in the kitchen supervised by a chef several times a week, as well as in the garden and orchard. It meant that everyone got to experience what it takes to grow and prepare food, and though not comprehensive, definitely cooking skills were learned. It was a social experience as people got to mingle with random others (the groups were different each week), and everyone could feel they had responsibility and were making a contribution to the communit. not a vegetarian but the food was so good, I did not miss meat one iota, and often had second helpings. The school reduced the labour costs of fresh food. Food for thought for schools in North America. We wouldn't wait for high school graduation to have our kids involved in cooking at home. Why not school?
5
I'm quite familiar with the lunch in our local school. We do serve lots of fresh fruit and salad, but the rest of the lunch is totally pre-fab and is really quite sad. I so much wish our kids could have healthier, tastier entrees and vegetables.
A number of years ago our school board decided to contract out our lunchrooms to one of the big for-profit companies, because it would save them money and the hassle of having to employ the cafeteria staff. Price per lunch staying low is a huge part of the calculation.
When I grew up we had cooks who actually knew how to cook, and who made magical meals from scratch that tasted delicious. Lunch was always my favorite part of the day (and I liked school). I wish we could get back to that, but I don't see a way to make it happen.
2
This is truly a beautiful lunch. All that is necessary is water or tea.
5
Giusti's project resembles an earlier, similar endeavor by British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver who spent several months in both Huntington, WV, and Los Angeles trying to reform those districts' school lunch programs by feeding the kids fresh, wholesome, cooked-from-scratch food. This was all documented in an ABC reality show called "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (ever hear of "pink slime"?). Unfortunately Mr. Oliver's efforts were a failure. The kids didn't like the food, which, adding insult to injury, turned out to be too fatty per U.S. government standards; the school "lunch ladies" he tried to cajole and charm were uncooperative; and the officials in LA were downright hostile, treating him like some subversive interloper intent on foisting "foreign" food like roast chicken and fresh vegetables on American kids accustomed to chicken nuggets and ketchup. Too bad.
4
@William Wroblicka The problem is always Jamie's personality not the food.
This is a really difficult problem, so kudos to all the folks at Brigaid, and ESPECIALLY all the food service directors making the extra effort to make this happen. It's so inspiring to see how Michelle Obama has affected school lunches around the country.
7
They didn't recognize hummus? Am I the only one that has been repeatedly subjected to those annoying Sabra commercials? Seriously - it's on the shelves of every convenience and grocery store - even in CT.
5
What a great article! I hope it inspires more schools to shift away from processed food.
7
Hard to make any conclusions about menus when we're dealing with such a large age group. I'm trying to put myself in that juvenile frame of mind. Would I eat that? The answer changes depending on what age I am when you ask the question. Sometimes repeatedly or even on a given day.
That said, I think scratch cooking is a novel idea for the school cafeteria. However, I'm a little skeptical when a for-profit company is offering to feed students on a $1.25 per meal and still expects to make a profit. You have to wonder what margin they expect to make. If $1 is for food and $2 is for operation costs, what percentage goes to profit exactly?
Let's also recognize, even the best chef in the world can't produce a pleasant dining experience if the atmosphere is wrong. School cafeterias are truly miserably places. The lighting, the seating, the social environment. Everything is designed to make your dining experience miserable.
I don't blame children for throwing out the fruit. You're given 20 minutes to get your food and eat in a very unpleasant place. No one asked you if you were hungry anyway. The chef's culinary efforts are facing an uphill battle.
4
@Andy at my kid's elementary school fruit was automatically part of every lunch tray, but it was never appealing. The district tried to add in more than the usual mealy Red Delicious apples but the kiwis and peaches were always rock hard, not ready to eat. So someone had a good thought in the meal planning, but the follow-through was lacking.
3
Jamie Oliver and his “Food Revolution” also attempted to improve school lunches in Los Angeles area schools. Unfortunately the LAUSD Superintendent wasn’t a fan of Jamie’s innovative and nutritional approach and limited his access to students. Mr. Giusti’s efforts are valiant! Hopefully many more students will have healthier school lunches and breakfasts in the not-too-distant future beyond his domain. I still remember one 9th grade high school student in my 1st period class in 1987 whose preferred breakfast was a Snickers bar and a Coke.
7
This is yet another example of how we in the USA refuse to look abroad and learn from what other countries are already doing successfully. The public schools in France and Spain are already serving nutritious meals to their elementary school children and doing it on very modest budgets. Somehow we seem to believe that if it isn't invented here, it isn't worth doing. Why do we insist on reinventing the wheel?
12
I certainly applaud the efforts by Mr. Giusti and others to improve the nutritional value and appeal of school lunches. After 70 years of observing the problem of "school lunches", I have come to the conclusion that most of the problem lies with parents who create and sustain "picky eaters". They may be "picky eaters" themselves but they do a lifetime of disservice to their kids by supporting these habits. Basically, you begin at infancy creating a wide variety of nutritious meals. If they do not "like" or eat the meals, they become a bit hungry and likely will be more "interested" in the next meal. No allowances, no substitutes or fast food. I am 100% sure that your child will not "starve to death". Why do I know this...because this is how the "rest of the world works". The key element to this problem is that it must start in infancy. Kids develop bad eating habits very early and they are hard to break.
7
@Paul Robillard
So much this! I'm always stunned when I talk with women who cook multiple meals at night because little Jimmy won't eat anything but fish sticks and Kraft mac and cheese, so they have to make one meal for parents and one for him. This is madness - not to mention a nightmare of extra work for mothers who already complain about having to take on all the household chores in addition to working outside the home - and does little Jimmy no favors.
When I was growing up, my parents never made us eat anything we didn't want, but there were no extra meals being prepared. And with money being tight, if lunch was free at school, we sure as shooting would have been required to eat it. The alternative was be hungry. No one died and when we were hungry enough, we'd eat. When we got older, we could make something ourselves if we didn't like what was being served, but we had to do all the work and clean up the mess after. But that was rare because by then, we already had a diverse palate.
There are definitely things I won't eat today, but I consider myself a fairly adventurous eater. At a minimum, there are very few things that I wouldn't at least try once. I thank my parents every day for that.
9
@Paul Robillard - I had an ex-military mother who would put a plate in front of you and command you to eat. You did not get up until the plate was clean. End of story.
Somewhere around age 10, my mother finally caught on that even the sight of calve's liver was enough to make me hurl and so she would make me a simple burger when she and my brother wanted to splurge and eat that gross stuff.
I sure am glad today she did because liver is the only thing I don't like. Its pretty easy to make nutritious meals any season of the year when you are open to everything at the market...with the exception of liver.
3
When I was a kid, we moved to Japan and I had to learn to eat seaweed, fish, and tofu at school. I had never had Japanese food before and it was challenging as a kid with finicky American tastes, but I learned over time to love it. Japanese school meals are cooked from scratch by professionals and served by a team of students in the classroom. Schools take lunch seriously. Learning what a balanced meal looks like is part of the curriculum (rice, veggies, a protein, miso soup usually) Teachers supervise to make sure students use proper manners. I still remember being lectured about food waste when I didn't finish a bowl of miso soup. Back in the US, school meals were pre-made sloppy joes , chocolate milk, and cheese pizza that would send rivers of oil onto your plate when you tipped it. Fruit was a mealy red apple that went straight to the trash.
Other countries do better for their kids and so can we.
25
Let me see if I understand this correctly. Students (and I realize not all students who are refusing the food fit into this economic category) who are subsidized because they do not have enough money for school lunches are refusing to eat the school lunches in fairly significant numbers because the stuff looks yucky. They just go hungry? That is hard to believe. Now, if they have enough money to go outside and buy junk food, then why are they being subsidized? I ask my university students here in Tokyo how much allowance they got from their parents when they were ten years old. (Actually, it is part of a discussion of their childhood days in their English textbook.) And almost every 18-year old reports it was the equivalent of five dollars...a month. Once they reached junior high, maybe ten dollars...a month. That doesn't give you many chances to eat at a fast-food hamburger or noodle place, where you're going to pay $5 for one lunch. I repeat. Are they eating nothing from breakfast to dinner rather than choosing the food provided, any food provided, hummus, bummus and schmummus included? What amazing fortitude they have!
5
@Gnirol
Yes, students don't eat all day. I work in the public schools and I'm shocked at how many MS and HS students tell me they don't anything until school is over.
9
@Gnirol
Yes. Students will avoid eating lunch for a variety of reasons. Food preferences are only one of them. Have you taken a seat in a student bathroom lately? Gym class is another good example. When was the last time you put back a plate a beans right before running two miles? If the student's lunch is scheduled before gym, they probably will avoid certain menu items if they eat at all.
Even the relative luxury of a college cafeteria comes with drawbacks. I would intentionally schedule my meal times to avoid peak demand. That sometimes meant going until three or four without a proper meal. However, that situation was preferable to fighting for a seat at a table where you couldn't lift a fork without bumping into someone.
My meals are precious to me. I'm not going to make myself uncomfortable for them. I'll take the subsidized meal to go if they'll let me. Bring your own tupperware and eat the food later.
3
@Gnirol Another testament that various things will cause kids to not eat all day long. At my kids' elementary, recess was scheduled as part of lunch. If you took too long to eat lunch, you missed out on recess. In addition, the lunch line was long and slow, so kids near the end would quickly bolt a milk or whatever on the plate was quick to eat -- if anything -- so they could head out to the playground. I packed my kids' lunches. They would eat 3/4 of the lunch on the way home from school.
Another thing that keeps some kids from eating lunch is the room itself (not addressed in this article). It is very loud in a typical elementary lunchroom that is all hard surfaces; some kids feel overwhelmed. It is a time of day to socialize - my one of my kids talked rather than ate. Finally, a kids' lunchroom can be pretty gross. One of my kids refused to use the school's disposable cutlery because it was stored tine-side up in jars. She said she watched kids with snotty noses touch many forks as they grabbed theirs. Kids were supposed to sponge off their places after eating but being kids didn't always do such a great job.
Kids are people who have their various reasons not to eat, food preference being just one of them. Don't even get me started on the post-elementary pressure on girls to be seen as not needing to eat! But making the food better and the lunchroom calmer would really help.
15
I applaud these efforts.
Thousands of tons of fresh food ends up in landfills daily.
More school districts need to insert themelves into the food supply chain in such a way that this fresh food ends up on the breakfast and lunch plates of school children nationwide.
The 1950s school lunch model of frozen factory produced lunches full of modular maximumly processed high corporate profit foods needs to be hurled right into the garbage where it belongs.
As Mr Giusti has proven, America's children deserve and can have much better.
10
By the time kids get to school, their palates are already trained to crave whatever their parents are feeding them, so getting them to accept this kind of food is going to be difficult if they don't already get it at home.
I feel like the money spent (wasted) on school lunches would be better put to use on education - increasing teacher pay, having better / more access to text books, etc. If the families are receiving free or reduced price lunch, they are likely receiving SNAP as well and should be able to send their kids to school with a PB&J sandwich. My mom sent me to school with one every day and I turned out just fine.
2
A million thanks to Mr. Giusti for following his heart and passion.
One thing that might really help get kids excited about the food is integrating scratch cooking with a school garden and nutrition curriculum. Ideally kids can be exposed to how food grows in elementary school and seasonal menus can relate to what children have grown in school gardens and studied in science.
That transforms eating into a deeper experience and adventure.
13
@Ben But the school year doesn't coincide with the growing season.
1
Hats off and much respect to Mr. Giusti!
Here’s an easy and inexpensive fix to make the school cafeteria more relaxing and inviting: Change the “décor.”
1. Paint the walls with bright colors, and maybe add a mural if a local artist would volunteer to complete one.
2. Add hanging plants, artificial or real, from the ceiling. Strategically place a mixture of both real and artificial large plants on the floor.
3. Add a water feature.
4. Place a large blackboard menu at the entrance to the cafeteria. Maybe have a cardboard cutout of an animal standing next to it, and pointing to the day's selections.
6
You have to see small changes as really positive. Kids excited to eat fresh fruit .. which they can probably make at home. Kids excited about roasted chicken, maybe they can replace the nuggets at home with a rotisserie chicken ..
Maybe the bean counters can cut these types of programs some slack. If the food is better and healthier, maybe add a bit to the budget. It provides some good jobs in the cafeteria, which can lead to jobs in the food industry, especially if they include actual kitchen skills.
School lunches, even at wealthy suburban schools, are often attrocious, and we have a beautiful new school without a real kitchen .. I guess it saved a few dollars ..
8
The food looks delicious. I know of a couple other countries where scratch food is normally served in schools, but those countries have their own longstanding, standard cuisine which each student would recognize from home. In the US, it's quite different, where people come from many different cuisine backgrounds and people eat an amazing variety of types of food.
In the long run, most people end up trying many types of food, but for younger kids they are biologically programmed to want and trust the foods they know, so I can see this could be another challenge in a school environment: not all kids will know the foods being served. In the long run as they get older it's great exposure, but it might be hard for younger kids.
4
I'll never forget the Anthony Bourdain episode when he ate lunch at a grammar school in France .. he sat there with a bunch of kids- an appetizer of squash soup the school chef prepared using fresh vegetable stock and white wine.
Can you imagine if that was done here?
29
Bravo! The work that Dan, April and the rest of the Brigaid team are doing is the single most important development in the world of school food. It is regrettable that the City is dragging its feet when it really doesn’t have to.
I should know, I was in charge of school food in NYC for many, many years and the founder and former chairman of the non-profit group the urban school food alliance - a cooperative group of urban school districts.
I have spent a great bulk of my professional life at the forefront of progressive school food change.
If we want to feed our school children the food they really deserve to both be healthy and do well in school, we need to fully embrace scratch cooking. It is as straightforward as that.
The limit to expanding scratch cooking in NYC schools is indeed restricted by kitchen infrastructure deficiencies, but there currently are over 300 schools that are prime candidates for scratch cooking right now. Further, all new school kitchen construction should be built with a scratch cooking perspective in mind.
Let’s hope our current leaders don’t drop the ball on this!
22
At the beginning of my teaching career, schools still cooked hot meals for student lunches. Gradually this changed , and school cafeterias instead began reheating processed foods, and the menu shifted to greasy pizza, chicken nuggets, tater tots, french fries, canned vegetables and fruit. I saw my students grow increasingly overweight over the years- a reflection of the alarming obesity epidemic among our children that finally led to changes in nutrition requirements for school lunches during the Obama administration, changes that are being rolled back by the Trump administration.
Why on earth would we want to lower the quality of school lunches just when we are starting to see progress in reducing childhood obesity? What's really behind efforts to roll back the nutrition standards adopted in 2010? As usual, the answer may lie in corporate profits. The processed food industry not only contributes to political campaigns, they also are industry members of the School Nutrition Association, a group of school nutritionists, and industry sponsors support the group's national convention. The SNA supports "simplifying" school lunch regulations , and publishes a school nutrition magazine with advertisers like Tyson ( Tyson mega mini chicken chunks).
Powerful corporate interests are at work. We all need to pay attention to efforts to roll back standards, and contact our members of Congress to express our support for replacing processed foods with wholesome cooking.
18
@Edie Clark - The oligarchs who run our country do not want us eating healthy food. If we did, we would not grow up to be sick as often and then we would not need so much expensive healthcare.
There is little to no profit in a healthy food source for all Americans compared to a non-stop fast food diet.
5
@tom harrison
Ridiculous. Most of the problem is that kids get almost no exercise today in which to burn off all the calories of a lousy school lunch (which we had in the 60s). Now parents think little Johnny is going to be snatched up by some predator when, in fact, statistically, that is very rare. The media don't help things with their sensationalism.
Some readers are commenting that it would be wonderful to involve the children in food preparation or teach them to cook the food at home. But that won't solve the problems of poor nutrition in low income communities. We have to figure out how to make healthy ingredients available locally and involve the parents, many of whom have all sorts of life-long struggles that command their attention.
I frequently see in my Facebook feed advertisements to buy fruits and vegetables at low cost from a company that sells weirdly shaped produce that farmers cannot otherwise sell. The company wants to deliver individual boxes to my front door, an expensive proposition (unless the company can convince many of my neighbors to order from them, too). Wouldn't it be more profitable for such a company to work with organizations on the ground in low income communities to supply weirdly shaped produce in bulk at low cost?
9
@Karen - I grew up poor. My mother was lazy and on her best days was a mediocre cook. She could make an awesome meat loaf, pork chops with canned mushroom soup gravy, and she was a master with eggs. Everything else in my childhood was pretty much canned spinach and t.v. dinners.
Grandma was even worse. Everything was fried in old Crisco although she did make the most awesome corn I have ever had but grandpa grew it and the oldest corn I ever ate was 10 minutes from the field to the table.
Luckily for me, I embraced my inner gay early in life and watched Julia Child everyday. It was the early 70's and suddenly whole wheat flour was all the rage so I never brought a bag of white flour into my home since then. There is not a recipe on the planet that intimidates me and I can do wonders with strange vegetables. Most people around me are clueless about cooking, can't handle a knife, and nothing they make tastes as good as Jack-in-the-Box.
I am a firm believer that we should require some kind of cooking classes for kids so they have a shot at feeding themselves through life. At the same time, I think they should also have some basic home repair classes because they will need those as well or have to pay someone else.
7
I am very impressed with Chef Dan Giusti ideas and energy. Unfortunately, I have been in some urban schools where 30 and sometimes even more students are in classrooms. The fundamental reason, no space for more classrooms is available in that building. In addition, special needs students need more help from the teacher(s) leading for a need for even smaller class sizes. (No I am not a teacher.)
Except for a minority of school buildings, I doubt if there is space for reasonable classroom size and a properly equipped kitchen. That is one area where nearly ready to eat food excels - it takes relatively little room to prepare.
If space is available, I hope he can do this in every school.
4
food habits are learned at home, in K-5. then again when an independent adult and again when raising a family.
cannot imagine the waste if this is served to an average elementary school kid in America. too many picky eater prima donnas. and by picky eater kids I mean, kids who whine to eat only carbs and sweets or processed foods.
good luck. but not sure you can outsource this (i.e. get the kids to eat the healthy food). Parents will need to help.
5
This is an opportunity for restaurateurs to step up. You want to create a market for fine dining? Here's your chance. Hire those deserving young chefs right out of culinary school, and give them the opportunity to cook for the world's toughest customers. Pay their salaries in accordance to what they would earn in your restaurant. Give them the choice of just school hours, or school hours plus your restaurant, too. Guarantee them a position with you at the end of a couple of years with the schools, following the school's rules and still increasing the number of kids that use the program for bonuses.
13
@Margaret And how is it restaurateurs can possibly afford to pay culinary school grads to cook for school-kids?
The failure rate for restaurants is astronomical, which means most restaurants can barely even support their owners, much less culinary school grads who are hired to cook for school-kids and are thus a drain on restaurant income.
The folks who run schools need to be persuaded to free up enough dollars and space to afford scratch kitchens, staff hiring and training, etc.
1
@Mon Ray, I didn't have those starting out precarious small businesses in mind. I was thinking of the successful chefs with multiple successful restaurants who already have many employees.
1
When I was in school, we were taught Home Economics (girls) and shop (boys). I think there should have been a semester in each, but in my day girls were sent to Home Ec. I still use recipes from Mrs. McNab's class and all of the foods were completely foreign to me. It taught me to love feed and taught me the basis of cooking. I am a very good cook, I learned that in school. It also taught me sewing and accounting. I don't use them much, but for a long time in college I made my own clothes. I learned shop on my own and can actually rebuild an engine, but I wish I'd been given the option to learn shop. It's great to schools revevaluating lunch and trying. Perhaps if they re-introduced Home Ec, they could offer practicums in the cafeteria, which could lead to jobs.
Here's the thing that bothers me about this article.
"Most worrisome is the number of students eating the meals: just 53 percent for the first half of this school year at the Morrisania campus, down from 66 percent for the same time last year, even though every New York City public school student is eligible for a free breakfast and lunch each day."
If they're eligible for school lunch and don't eat it, then they should be suspended from the program. Those in need do not turn down free food and I can guarantee, those kids are spending money at McDonald's. The significant savings that could generate would finance more schools.
3
@thewriterstuff Not sure how this works in every state, but here in WA schools that have above a certain percentage of kids who qualify for free meals just give them to everyone. It reduces paperwork, which substantially offsets the cost of additional food, and decreases the stigma of being in the program.
3
@thewriterstuff and Lisa,
NYC policy is that all students are entitled to lunch. Along with the advantages Lisa cites, it means that in a sad situation where parents for some reason aren't organized enough to enroll their eligible child in the program that child gets fed.
1
Teach the kids how to do all the prep. Make it part of the curriculum. They can learn so much and they will be self sufficient with good eating habits forever!
Schools need to start incorporating practical life skills and job training into the daily or weekly routine.
Every school should have an ongoing enterprise to teach through which will bring the learning to life and connect it something tangible thus improving the retention rate while training for the futuret!
25
@HBD I’d bet there is not a single state whose curriculum requirements would allow public school students to do this because it would conflict with other curriculum mandates.
Private schools wouldn’t do this because they already pay lower salaries to teachers and staff than public schools do, and the high-tuition-paying parents wouldn’t stand for having their kids do such menial work. Well, maybe some very progressive schools might try it, but most would not.
2
@HBD "all the prep" starting with "growing food on the roof".
This man, Dan Giusti, is what a good heart, a good conscience, and basic human decency looks like in action. The world can never have enough people like him. So, thank you, for all your efforts, and all the incredible work you do to make this world a better place!
(Hopefully, more and more kids will come around to real food!)
62
Sounds good. Why does it have to be so difficult to change the culture of good nutrition in a public school? Kudos sir for your expertise. I hope you succeed, it sure beats eating the “slop” that the schools serve daily.
3
Thank you to all the people involved in this project; it’s a worthy endeavor for our children.
To the author - you state that participation dropped from 66 to 53 percent with the new meals, and seem to blame it on the fact that students now have to eat in the cafeteria versus their classrooms. If someone is hungry that wouldn’t seem to matter. Does it take too long to get to the cafeteria and go through the line? Is it chaotic? Do the students feel unsafe in a larger group away from their known, smaller class?
An explanation, even if it’s just speculation, would be helpful. And if the cause is known there may be a solution.
24
@KLM
Or maybe, just maybe, the kids don't like eating the food.
3
We started this idea in the international school of The Hague between early 1990’s to 2006. We made food from scratch . It worked a treat for the younger kids. However, for the older crowd ,who were allowed off campus for lunch, we couldn’t compete. They took their disposable income and bought fries and candy and junk food from the grocery down the street. My favorite memory is watching kids pick the roasted veggies off my homemade pizza and toss them into the bin. Good luck changing teenage eating habits. It was fun anyway.
8
@Lisa Murphy Changing habits is hard, especially of teenagers. Changing children tastes works takes time. It means offering more tasty choices like strawberries or watermelon, rather than the generic tasteless whole apples that children often threw in the trash, which means extra cost to ensure that food will be eaten. It means ignoring the efforts of the current administration which is rolling back nutrition guidelines in order to curry the favor of corporate campaign donors like the processed food industry . It means educating children and parents about healthier food choices. But after all, that's what we educators do- educate!
2
The best that our school system in Pinellas County can do is vending machines. Only because the previous food they were slinging was not edible. My son was used to good food at our table and could not believe the food that was offered. Shame on them for not giving our kids the fuel to learn and stay focused.
11
As a public school teacher for over 20 years it is my experience that public schools prepare the lowest quality of food possible. It is a shame. My solution is quite simple, the person in charge of the kitchen goes to BJ’s or Costco every week to get food and fresh fruits and vegetables are delivered several times a week. Don’t our children deserve a good meal?
As a high school student I will never forget when I was in the school cafeteria’s kitchen and I saw a box full of hamburgers it was marked “Grade D Edible”
13
@D. Arnold Well private schools have healthy catered meals included in tuition and many of the students still only eat the rice or bread ONLY.
Only the kids whose parents made it a priority to eat veg, meat, fruit or "all the colors of the rainbow" each meal, are the kids eating a nutritious diet.
5
@D. Arnold, I just put on my school district financial manager's hat. [I am an accountant.] You are freaking me out. Have you never heard of disbursement controls in government entities? There are reasons that purchases are made in accordance with contracts.
With that hat off I will say that I think the rigor we expect in public sector procurement in the US is overkill in many instances.
Having "cooked" for Head Starter's years ago I applaud this. Many meals at HS were simply beige...chicken nuggets and tater tots with the only color being catsup, which I suppose was counted as a "vegetable." There were farmers in the area and a box of apples was donated to us, but we could not serve them as it was not allowed. We are what we eat. Don't kids deserve better? No one wants to pay for it I suppose. We are a very short sighted country.
18
@Deborah
Deborah, what did you expect? In a society where everything is "well regulated" except for the access to assault rifles, of course you are gonna need a license to give out an apple. This is not Denmark where you can pop out to the countryside along with a class of children and drink a fresh glass of milk or hold an egg. I took a 10 year old on a road trip to Florida once, and we drove into an orange-plantation. Whereas the farmer was really happy to see us, we were not allowed to pick a single orange, because you need a "fruit-pickers-license". We bought a bag, never being allowed to touch a tree. A restrictive society you have helped create, and this is one of the results: Not being able without a state permit to give out unlicensed apples to kids (you'd probably get "detained" for even talking to one in the first place), put up wallpaper, make a garage sale, just think of the consequences and the liability... Whoaaa...
@Alex Probably coated in pesticides, not worth it.
I worked for USDA, used to cringe watching tourists pull over to grab a pineapple.
Bravo...!
Strengthen and educate our children, that is the best hope for Making America Great again.
13
I was amused by what was in the plate of the high school students: the young woman seems to cornered the salads of the young men. At the public elementary school our daughters attended, their friends always traded food items before starting to eat. Fresh veggies like carrot stick were give-aways, desserts had the highest coinage, corn dogs were usually not traded. Our grand daughters tell me this is not allowed today.
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Chef Dan Giusti is doing such a good thing. By serving fresh real food to schoolchildren he is introducing them to food habits that will affect their lifelong health. Food like snack substances made by massive corporations are made with one goal in mind - making money at the expense of the health of those who ingest. If you eat junk food, you kill your desire for nutritional food. Even the entities that put profit margins above all else should not be shortsighted because health problems for our future adults are created in childhood. Bravo to this man Giusti. He is doing good work.
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It looks beautiful and I'm afraid 90% of it is guaranteed to end up in the trash.
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Get the students to help in the kitchen! Teach them about health and nutrition and get them on track for a variety of incredible trades and possibly careers that focus on dietary needs and culinary wants. In Europe they certainly don't serve prefabricated dreck to their school-age children.
Meantime, Mr. Giusti, thanks for bringing the world of wholesome food -- by definition from scratch -- to kids who show up to learn each day. If I had a dime for every meal in recent years purchased in a school setting that cuts corners deliberately for the "lowest responsible bidder" and whose end-products made me feel sluggish and ill, to say the least, I'd be sitting on a pile of real coin right now. And those sick little apples they purchase from who knows where, with the mealy consistency. Well, it's all an insult to children and parents everywhere and no wonder they go in the garbage, a terrible waste of food that could better serve some animal.
Something good has started indeed! Keep going! Parents take note!
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respect such a try!
FAO ‘s Food Programms in order to change nutritional habits a never ending story ,not just because of unwanted ,rather never ending changing insights imagining the best and healthy diet ought to be at that very particular geographical location ,at that very particular time.
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I applaud Mr Giusti and all the individuals and institutions that are supporting his initiative. Bravo! One of the most important things we can do for all children is to teach them the pleasure of good food, cooked from scratch, and the huge differences between fresh food cooked with enthusiasm and appreciation, and processed and packaged products laden with sugars and preservatives that should not be called food at all. It takes work, and it takes a whole community to bring about this kind of change - and it takes education. The rewards are immeasurable, and it is the only and best way we will ever counter the epidemic of obesity that plagues so many young people's lives. Bee Wilson, Dan Barber, Alice Walker and Michael Pollan's books should be part of every high schooler's curriculum. And cooking and nutrition classes for all!
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Most of the cafeterias I've seen in operation have operated as much for the convenience of the staff as for the students. Kitchen workers can learn to prepare fresh meals, but they wanted to be out the door and put in as few hours as possible. The pay is low -- they are working primarily for the benefits, especially the health benefits. So most of the kitchen work is done in factories offsite, and the food is simply reheated, which saves time and money, and keeps the staff happy.
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@trillo The low pay of kitchen workers is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed ( and of the other support staff as well, but that is another issue). Cuts in school funding are to blame.
3
Wow! What a great & inspiring story! Anything new is tough and it’s especially tough to fight on simultaneous fronts (kid tastes, workforce) but those kinds of fights & the iron will to push through them are what brings real positive change to a society. Great work!!! Keep fighting! PS There’s living proof in my house that the 3rd grader who would only eat black beans, bagels, and small amounts of fruit can blossom into a college student who travels the world and fearlessly eats anything and who cares about fresh, local, quality food.
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Very interesting article -- I teach at an elementary school in the Bronx, where more than 500 children cycle through the lunchroom every day. Our schools also take part in CookShop, where they learn to prepare tasty and nutritious food. From a practical point of view, I can't see how our staff can prepare 500 meals daily from scratch...it is also instructive to watch and see what gets eaten and what goes to waste...a lot! I think the best way to encourage "healthy and delicious" food habits is to involve the children and their parents in food preparation. There are also huge learning opportunities in cooking science, but as in anything, these kinds of programs are very pricey.
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Is it really cheaper to eat from throw away plastic than normal dishes that are washed? Its certainly adding how much plastic to the ecology system. And is it even recycled?
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That looks more like compostable pressed paper to me...
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@Jane Grenier I agree. I think even if my kids school district would just adopt this tray it would improve things. As it is they are served really unappealing/unhealthy processed food on foam trays.
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@Jean louis LONNE - My city would not allow that. All takeout containers are now compostable cardboard and along with food scraps and yard trimmings go to the compost the city uses in all of the parks. You can't even get a plastic straw in these parts after the latest laws passed.
2
Great article, great idea—offer school-kids freshly prepared lunches.
Given tight school budgets, I hope the bean-counters don’t get hold of this new approach and reflexively start trying to trim what they will inevitably consider fat.
9
Cooking for large groups is always a challenge, particularly for kids. This is compounded by current trends that have fewer families cooking at home, more prepared foods available in grocery stores. It comes down to time and money. I applaud every effort made in every single school, large or small, to improve the quality of the food being served. School meals need to be treated as part of the educational day with resources and staffing to enable a trans-formative experience. The people preparing and serving the food are the only group of people that have an impact on every single student, every single day. Teaching kids how to embrace good food and a healthy diet should be a top priority for their own lives and for our society.
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Bravo Chef Giusti! Wonderful, positive story about making a real difference that matters to the core. Am truly surprised that in NYC such a ‘cause célèbre’ has not captivated the hearts, minds and pockets of the city’s many well known chefs, celebrities and philanthropists...they’re active involvement could help sustain these efforts into lasting, proactive change. A win win for all!
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The importance of your vision cannot be underestimated. Good nutrition begets good health and a safe place for learning. Basic rights for all children. Thank you.
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Don’t need a Michelin starred chef to fix public school food, or garbage private school food (I lived that in the early 1980s), you need people who care about the preparation of decent food. Healthy food like many beans can be deliciously prepared quite cheaply from even canned beans, if the person doing the cooking cares about food.
And given the horrid pay for most “chefs” in NYC restaurants, I really can’t imagine that some qualified chefs wouldn’t want to work in the schools with much of the summer off. However they need a decent staff that also cares about food–that was the failing of the food in my boarding school. The head of the kitchen was fine as a cook, but her staff produced garbage from perfectly decent ingredients.
Submitted May 14th 3:35 PM Eastern
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No, you don’t need a Michelin chef to fix school lunches, but Dan stepped up. And he has persevered.
Step one: Look at life in a positive way.
Step two: Stop being unkind to yourself.
This is a wonderful story in our newspaper. I appreciate that.
66
Great article.
NYC use to have full staff in their kitchens years back. Then outsourced our kids meals and health to the lowest bid.
Solutions like this are positive.
My suggestion is to take culinary graduates and give them a school. Make regional heads.
Source from the largest supermarket in the world, Bronx Terminal Market.
Similar article years back with a NYC private school. Kids adapt.
Keep moving forward.
67
Thank you for this article! There has been a lot of glowing press for Brigaid lately, and it's nice to see such a well-rounded look that paints a clearer picture of the challenges being faced as they try to roll out in NY.
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