Posts Tagged ‘school food’

Posted by Andrea Northup | August 17th, 2010

Katherine Bryant is an intern with the D.C. Farm to School Network, and a seasoned community food security advocate.  This blog describes her recent farm to school “field-trip” to Delaware and the Eastern Shore.

Greetings from the watermelon capital of the world!

I had the honor of joining a small group of Washington, DC school food service providers, D.C. Farm to School Network Coordinator Andrea Northup, and a D.C. City Council staffer on a trip to Delaware – a fitting ‘initiation’ into the role of D.C. Farm to School Network intern. The goal of the trip was to get a feel Delaware’s local food supply, and explore how to connect that supply with the demand for local foods in the D.C. school system. Our knowledgeable and well-connected host, fourth-generation watermelon farmer and Delaware Fruit and Vegetable Association president David Marvel, led our energetic and passionate group on a wonderful journey of learning, networking, and of course – eating!

Just a few hours from D.C., Delmarva (a catchy name for the Eastern Shore region of Delaware Maryland, and Virginia) makes its mark as the epicenter of watermelon production.  They produce a notable portion of the country’s corn and lima bean yield as well. Our first stop was the S.E.W. Friel sweet corn farm. We were able to snag a few minutes with the farmers amidst the busyness of the growing season full in swing – which means around the clock harvesting, packing, distributing and marketing of products. We stood in awe of the over 13-feet tall machines capable of harvesting 60,000 lbs of corn per hour.  We chatted with some of the many folks who work in concert to bring that sweet corn all the way from seed to harvester to tractor-trailer truck to storage facility to point-of-sale (e.g. supermarket) to a family’s refrigerator.

Would you have guessed that both schoolchildren and Delmarva watermelons use the same form of transportation? In our exploration of the watermelon’s journey from farm to table, we learned that retired school buses are rendered windowless and accompany teams of migrant workers as they walk through fields tossing watermelons on board.  The roads of Delaware are flooded with melon-filled busses on their way to washing facilities, auctions or markets. We saw Lakeside Farms, a family-owned operation where watermelons are grown, washed and packed for shipping.  And we watched in fascination at the Laurel Produce Auction as truckloads of locally-grown produce were paraded and sold to the highest bidder. From mid-July until mid-September, the Auction sells an average of over 2 million watermelons!

Posted by Jody Tick | August 16th, 2010

There has been a lot of buzz and excitement about the new leadership and direction of the DCPS food services.  The conversation continued yesterday at a DCPS Community Forum, where about 60 parents, teachers, food service professionals, and community organizations gathered to ask questions of DCPS Food Services Director Jeff Mills, Chief Operations Officer Tony Tata, and Director of Health & Wellness Diana Bruce.

As an active DCPS parent, and a program director at the Capital Area Food Bank, I recognized almost every face in the room – fellow parent activist Constance Newman; garden educator Kacie Warner; and anti-hunger advocate Kristin Roberts; just to name a few.  Each of those wonderful stakeholders could be so much more than just a face in the crowd.  We could be valuable assets to the DCPS school meal system, and advocates in support of the changes you plan to make.

Since coming in to town a few months ago, the DCPS food services team has undertaken incredible efforts to transform D.C. school meals. This has been a challenge, given that D.C. school meals have a rocky history plagued by contract mismanagement, financial accountability issues, food safety concerns, and inconsistent leadership.  Jeff Mills and his team have inherited a 60,000 meal-a-day beast of a system, and have been quick to make big promises about how they’re going to turn it around on a dime.  To their credit, they’ve made huge expansions to breakfast in the classroom, piloting supper programs at after-school programs, taking on two new vendors as pilot projects, and hiring new staff.  And there are big promises of things to come, such as a garden-kitchen educational program, special celebratory events, a totally new menu based on unprocessed, fresh foods, 20% local produce, and compliance with IOM standards… the list goes on.

But who’s calling the shots?  What is the end goal?  Where are we headed?

All the people in that room last night are on the same side as Jeff and his team.  We want the great things for our kids and our community that they rattled off – more fresh, unprocessed foods, more local produce, better access to school meals.  But we understand that it won’t be easy to get those foods on D.C. cafeteria trays, and then get kids eat them.  You’ll need the community to be your allies in this.  But a few things need to change.

First, you must engage us. We need a formal system for providing input and giving feedback.  It is not enough for you to stand in front of us and tell us what’s happening.  We need to have a formal “Advisory Committee” comprised of a wide swath of community members and national experts to be a part of the planning and execution of the new DCPS school meal operation.  We need this NOW, as plans for the future are being shaped and defined, not after they have already been developed.

Second, slow down. Nobody is expecting a barrage of reforms that will solve every aspect of the DCPS school meals all at once.  The issues plaguing the DCPS school food system run deep, and have been decades in the making (as you probably know better than we do).  We would rather see a few simple, measurable goals achieved than dozens of efforts pulled together quickly.

Third, show us a strategic plan. This city has seen too many well-intentioned but piecemeal efforts to improve the health and well-being of our youth.  We need to be thinking not months, but years into the future at what DCPS food services will look like.  Tony Tata himself said that DCPS has no idea what this operation will look like after this year, and that’s unacceptable.  Other large, urban school districts have overcome the same issues we are facing and are serving the types of meals we strive to serve.  Let us learn from their successes and failures, and develop a strategic plan to get where we all want to go, with attention to the unique strengths and weaknesses we have here in the nation’s capital.

Fourth, be transparent. Keep us in the loop with your plans, the criteria you use to evaluate foods, how you spend our taxpayer dollars, where your food is coming from and what’s down the pipeline.  It’s not enough for you to give us vague responses to our questions from time to time – stay ahead of the curve and provide us with concrete information.

You can have our 100% support in these efforts if you engage us, and make calculated, strategic change towards our common goals, and are transparent with the community you’re serving.  And believe me, it is going to take our support and buy-in on a much deeper level to realize the ambitious goals that we all have for D.C. school food.  We owe it to the thousands of children who depend on these meals each day to work together on this while we have the chance.  Let’s get it right.

Posted by Andrea Northup | July 15th, 2010

This is the story of a rising D.C. high school senior’s experience volunteering with the D.C. Farm to School Network, a program of the Capital Area Food Bank that works to get more healthy, local foods into D.C. schools.  Bella Herold volunteered during a special event – Strawberries & Salad Greens – when the Network [...]

Posted by Ed Bruske | April 9th, 2010

By Ed Bruske
Contributing Editor
I was ready to have a perfectly civilized discussion–blog-to-blog–with Sam Fromartz over at ChewsWise on the subject of what we can do to get kids to eat better when I was stopped dead in my tracks by the lunch being served at my daughter’s elementary school here in the nation’s capital. Look [...]

Posted by Ed Bruske | February 22nd, 2010

D.C. Schools COO, Anthony Tata

By Ed Bruske
Contributing Editor

Anthony Tata, a former brigadier general and career Army officer in charge of procurement in Afghanistan, is the chief operating officer for D.C. Public Schools,  second in rank to chancellor Michelle Rhee. Tata was a close reader of our recent series of articles on the food served in D.C. schools–Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen–which questioned the highly processed and frequently sugary fare being served to children on a daily basis. Tata told The Washington Post that he is considering other options besides the school system’s current food provider, Chartwells. You  won’t find him disparaging Chartwells in this interview with The Slow Cook, except to say that school officials “are working with Chartwells to address concerns.”  Tata does say he is looking for ways to include more local produce in school meals and is considering a switch from highly-sweetened flavored milk. And there’s a new director of school food services on the scene who is particularly keen on school garden.