What’s new at the Tisch Food Center?
The following interview has been edited and condensed.
In New York State there are about 2.5 million school students. While many of these students receive free school lunch, as of now there are still 726,000 children who lack access to free nutritious meals. Earlier this year, more than 200 representatives from all parts of New York converged in Albany to rally for Healthy School Meals for All. This act would guarantee free meals for all New York school students.
Dr. Jen Cadenhead, the Executive Director of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy, participated in this rally. We had the privilege to interview Dr. Cadenhead along with Stephanie Loui, Food Ed Program Specialist. They provided much insight on the Healthy School Meals for All Coalition, recent Tisch Food Center projects, and opportunities for student involvement in this field.
Tell us about your work with the Healthy School Meals for All coalition.
JC: When the pandemic hit, the USDA provided waivers which allowed all schools participating in the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program to offer free meals. These waivers expired in August 2022. With this in mind, Congress was trying to incorporate universal free school meals into the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. However, this legislation faced significant pushback, which ultimately prevented it from passing universal free school meals.
In anticipation of this, we created a coalition during the 2021-22 school year to understand the barriers for authorizing free school meals on a state-by-state basis. While universal school meals were not passed nation-wide, several states went forward with passing this on a state-level. We were a part of the group that helped to advise these states on the most effective methods of passing this legislation.
Can you share with us about the Wellness in the Schools (WITS) scratch-cooking initiative in NYC schools?
JC: In New York City, close to 80% of the children are eligible for free or reduced meals. Because of this, NYC was able to adapt universal free school meals through the Community Eligibility Provision. Therefore, any NYC student who chooses to eat a school meal can eat it for free. Despite that, the average student participation is only about 60% at lunch and 30% at breakfast. This is comparable to national trends. However, when compared to the subset of schools offering universal free meals, it's actually a bit lower than average.
We know that school meals are the healthiest meals eaten by Americans. They are required to adhere to nutrition standards of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. However, you need children to be interested in eating the meals, and they tend to care about the flavor of foods. By offering more scratch-cooked foods through WITS, we're hoping students will expand their palates and increase their participation in school lunch.
February 17, 2023 was the first day that all New York City public schools experimented with one of the recipes from the WITS partnership with the Chefs Council. The Chefs Council is a group of 12 chefs, picked to represent the diversity of cooking styles and ethnic variation within NYC, headed by Rachael Ray. They came up with a series of recipes for NYC school lunches and are currently testing around eight of them. Their menus are plant-based, scratch-cooked, and culturally responsive. The first new recipe introduced was a sweet potato gumbo, made from chickpeas, sweet potatoes and greens. It was beautifully presented at PS75, the school I visited.
I believe if these meals come with food and nutrition education (which is something that has been years in the making) they can work to help change students’ palates and increase school lunch participation rates. The plan is that more and more of the Chef Council's recipes will appear on the menus during the 2023–24 school year and there will be training on scratch cooking for all kitchen staff over the next two school years. There are also plans for some schools to receive more food and nutrition education. The Tisch Food Center is working closely with the Office of Food and Nutrition Services and WITS staff on these plans and will conduct an evaluation of what is working, what is not, and also be measuring how much of these new recipes students are eating.
What goes into advocacy at the local and state level?
JC: First, you must bring together a group of people who are passionate about the issues, understand the implications, and dedicated to supporting the cause. It is essential to gather a core group of people who will stand with you for a long-term push for change.
While some things may seem like an overnight success, such as the Food Ed Hub, these are really the result of many years of advocacy. Food and nutrition education began in the early 1900s at Teachers College with Mary Swartz Rose. Our latest effort is to get nutrition education as a separate subject in all New York City schools. This effort alone is the culmination of 40 years of advocacy. Many changes that you see on a state level are also the result of years of advocacy work.
Advocacy initiatives are successful when lots of people are telling policy makers the benefits of the policy change. When universal free meals were passed in NYC, many people were involved in addition to families. For example: the principals’ union, the teachers’ union, the cafeteria workers’ union, and the bus drivers’ union. When you bring people together, politicians are willing to act.
What rewarding experiences have you encountered in your work?
JC: What keeps me going is recognizing the impact that the advocating we do at the Tisch Food Center can have. While in Albany this January, I heard a foster child share his story. His foster parents didn't recognize that he was eligible for free school meals, so he would go hungry many days. He was involved in athletics, and at some point, his coaches took him aside and asked, ‘why are you hungry?’ After looking into it, they realized that because he is a foster child, he is eligible for the meals. Stories like this show me that there are many children and families who need people to advocate for them. Our research helps to get those stories told, so that people can live better lives.
What advice do you have for students interested in getting involved in this field?
JC: A good start would be volunteering at a food pantry. Especially client choice pantries or those that provide services for people, like POTS (Part of the Solution). They do a really good job of helping empower people.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?
JC: The TC education is really empowering. Students may not recognize how much they know, but they should trust in the knowledge they're getting and feel confident to learn and grow. Follow your passion, but learn and grow in areas outside of TC to give back, because the world really needs you.
Can you tell us about the initiatives going on at the Food Ed Hub?
SL: We focus on community partnerships, professional development and nutrition education. We partner with about 40 organizations that conduct food and nutrition education programming in NYC schools. This spans from culinary, to working with garden and urban farms, to connecting food and nutrition to various academic subjects, to promoting food justice. This helps students have stronger food literacy and greater enjoyment of healthy food. We also hold a monthly coalition meeting, which is an opportunity for stakeholders to get together. Some will work more on the policy side, drafting documents to share with politicians about the needs, values and goals of Food Ed in New York City. We also have a special interest group focused on equity and outreach. That includes doing workshops and events for the coalition and the public, making sure that we are trying to reach as many different boroughs and areas as possible.
Historically, we have done a Food Ed Hub award to uplift and highlight food champions in the Food and Nutrition Education space. We also find ways to highlight our partners. We have a monthly blog series spotlighting a particular organization, what they do, some of the lessons they use in their teaching, and how we can support them as a community.
Finally, the Wellness Program Finder is a really important part of the work of the Tisch Food Center. This tool provides a way to search programs based on specific health education needs. If a school or a teacher wants to look up a particular kind of Nutrition, Physical Fitness, Sustainability or Environmental Ed, they can use the wellness program finder. This partner-project is exciting because it banks everything in a living library, with access to resources, curricula, and other information.
Join The Food Ed Hub at its first ever Conference: Friday, June 9th 2023 from 9am-4pm at Teachers College! Topics will include: nutrition education, youth food justice, culinary ed, school wellness, and much more. Educators, advocates, and organizations across NYC will join together for this event celebrating community food heroes, emerging nutrition research, and delicious culinary demonstrations. Learn more here.
Find the full interview and more at The Grapevine!