It's that time of year again when the kids are heading back to school and the once ignored topic of school food is HOT!

Whether you are a school administrator, teacher, chef or parent/guardian, school food should be a HOT topic for you too!

Here are a few helpful tips regarding school food:

FIVE Things School Food Service Directors or School Chefs Can Do

1. Every food program can be a little more sustainable. Every small change makes a difference - create a plan for the semester or the school year that lists three changes you would like to see happen.  Share these changes with the other food service workers in the kitchen so that they are on board and review the status on a regular basis.
2. Most chefs have a weekly or monthly meeting with their staff. Start to incorporate a mini sustainability lesson into these meetings.
3. Cross train your kitchen staff. Empower them to know how to work each position in the kitchen.  
4. Let kitchen staff help develop new 2 week menus each semester, either as a team or rotate through the staff one at a time. Encourage them to add new recipes. Promote the kitchen staff as "celebrity chefs" in the school. 
5. Cultivate relationships with students interested in food. Have a student write an article about their favorite dish, how it was made and add it to the menu! Encourage students to make a documentary about a kitchen staff member or the kitchen.

FIVE Things Parents Can Do

1. Introduce yourself and your children to the school foodservice director.
2. Most menus are accessible online or in calendar form these days - look through the weekly or monthly menu with your child and find out which meals he/she is excited about.  
3. Encourage your child to try new dishes at school.
4. If your child likes a dish made at school, find out what it is, how it's made and try to make it at home.
5. Help organize a parent/child cooking class at your school.

We recently led a culinary bootcamp called "The Maine Ingredient" for school chefs in Maine, read the story below to learn more and contact us if you would like to organize a similar event in your school district!

Get out there and make a difference, eat lunch at your local school, support your local farms, help plant a school garden, sponsor a charitable event such as a walk-a-thon. Healthier kids make a healthier future for us all!

If you have questions about how to transition the food service in your organization, school or community to a more sustainable model, we would love to speak with you!

If this resonates with you, please this article with your friends, families and colleagues.

We recently had the great pleasure to visit Cumberland County in Maine and help them prepare for the back-to-school season by leading a 3 day workshop called "The Maine Ingredient." This workshop was a collaborative training for 65 school chefs throughout the county and was intended to help incorporate simple, sustainable practices into their food sourcing, preparation, and cooking techniques while being mindful of tight budgets and FDA guidelines.

 

Click to see video

 

The farm-to-school program was well received all around and included time in the kitchen, time at the table and a tour of Pearson Town Farm. Although these districts are already doing some wonderful cutting edge stuff, we kicked it up several notches . . .  

 

Spicy Fat Fries

We shared recipes for a five-vegetable tomato sauce from scratch, that can be made once a week, sealed and frozen fresh. We revamped their mac and cheese recipe to one made from-scratch cheese sauce, instead of the 33-ingredient goo that comes out of a bag. Kids really do love french fries, so we made a healthy baked version made from local potatoes.  

 

This September the local school kids will be in for a pleasant and healthier surprise on their lunch trays! Plus they will learn about food choices and the impact they have on their bodies and their community. Approximately 60 percent of the adults in Cumberland County are overweight, this is a step in the right direction to turn this statistic around. 

 

Great big thanks to the federal Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative, the Community Food Security Coalition, the People's Regional Opportunity Program and the City of Portland, who funded the "The Maine Ingredient."   

 

Read more about the program.  

Download recipes used in the workshop.