Our public schools have faced barriers to restoring fresh cooking to our cafeterias, despite public health cries to do so, for many years. Constricting budgets, outdated or insufficient facilities and staffing have presented seemingly insurmountable struggles for administrations across the country. As a passionate practitioner in the health and healthcare world, I have long felt this troubling, but was thrilled to read a
New York Times piece on the topic recently, which debunked many of the myths surrounding this challenge.
It also highlighted
Cook for America, a new program which believes that school food is a powerful and effective tool in the fight against childhood obesity (I couldn't agree more), and emphasizes holistic, systemic change through the creation of a foodservice force that is both capable of preparing health scratch-cooked meals from whole, fresh foods, and motivated to do so. Their motto is "school food is the solution, not the problem!" I love the spirit of the organization, and its emphasis on making these ends possible in all communities.
Their work in Colorado is specifically highlighted in the NYTimes article, which I would highly recommend.
Lastly, as a strong proponent of hands on exploration of the joys of food and cooking with children at a young age (thanks Mom), I found their
Jr. Chef program to be pretty exciting.
Check it out.
