brave new lunch

Farm to School Fair

2011-08-21T15:53:00.000-04:00

Pat Lanni of Lanni Orchards in Lunenberg, MA speaking to a student While most schools were on summer break this past July, the Perkins School for the Blind in Somerville, MA was still in session and held it’s first Farm-To-School fair. I’ve never been to a farm-to-school fair before. While I was there as a volunteer greeter, I was also there to watch and learn. Holding a Farm-to-School Fair

Getting a better burger to school

2011-03-07T06:13:00.002-05:00

On my top ten list of things to replace on my school lunch menu is our burgers. Of course, it’s hard to replace the thaw-and-serve version – it’s inexpensive, easy to prepare, and kids generally like it. Last spring, I heard that a nearby school district is serving antibiotic and hormone-free burgers traceable to local farms. I was very much intrigued. It turns out the food service

Homemade mac n’ cheese for 500

2011-02-21T20:57:00.000-05:00

My kitchen is serving homemade macaroni and cheese for the whole school this Thursday. I thought it would be informative to share the process by which a menu item is transformed from thaw and serve to homemade. Previously, we used a frozen, full-fat version and cut it with extra whole grain pasta. This Thursday, we will make our own sauce and mix it with 50 pounds of Barilla Plus elbow

Hello, Change!

2011-02-10T23:37:00.002-05:00

New lunch favorite: chicken tacos w/ cheese and salsa Hi All, Happy New Year! Sorry it's been such a long time since my last post. For the last three months, I've been quite busy: I got married, and I'm preparing to open my own food business this spring. However, I would like to continue blogging about school lunch. 30 pounds of locally-sourced roasted butternut squash Change is the

Baked Potatoes

2010-11-15T07:20:00.017-05:00

Baked potatoes are a wonderful, hearty school lunch food for the winter months. Preschoolers and adults like them, and they can be dressed up in so many ways to make a fun meal. Our salad bar morphs into a baked potato bar for the day, and I’ve found that it’s been very easy to upgrade the fixins: Last year, defrosted chopped broccoli This year, fresh, chopped broccoli, blanched, and bright

Small changes

2010-11-11T21:05:00.003-05:00

Improving the menu this year has been all about making small changes rather than drastic ones. For example, we still serve hot dogs, but instead of the usual accompaniment of rice and beans from a boxed mix, we made a brown rice, carrot, and raisin salad. The recipe we used is based off of one from the “Recipes for Schools” section of the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution website. We baked off

November Menu

2010-10-27T18:12:00.000-04:00

Can't read the items? See below for a close-up version My kitchen is finally fully staffed, and I’ve got a new cook on board. It means that we can truly begin the process of eliminating as much pre-processed foods from our main menu as possible. Here’s the tentative menu for November. You will see that there’s still an assortment of items on the menu that I can’t wait

Composting, Finally!

2010-09-27T06:00:00.002-04:00

Last April, I blogged about how my kitchen is spearheading our school’s composting program using Save That Stuff, a Boston-based waste management company. Middle and upper schoolers “practiced” composting by separating compostable from trash during lunch, but the program didn’t take off because there was no supervision to make sure waste was going in the appropriate bins. We’re at it again,

Recruiting for the School Food Revolution: Hiring a Cook

2010-09-25T15:41:00.001-04:00

I'm looking to hire for a new cook position in my school kitchen. This might be the most important decision I make in terms of helping me improve the school menu, so I'm very excited. Here's the ad I placed: Part-time cook: Be Part of the School Food Revolution Our private school is looking to improve school lunch and needs a part-time cook to help with that process. If you watched Jamie

VOTE FOR MY FOOD TRUCK!

2010-09-20T20:25:00.001-04:00

The City of Boston is holding a food truck contest for interesting, local, and sustainable food concepts. The prize is a spot for a truck to sell on City Hall during lunchtime next spring. I had to enter because I love food trucks and the scope of the contest is right up my alley. I came up with BON ME, a truck serving the following: Vietnamese-inspired sandwiches, noodles, and rice bowls;

Brave New Lunch is Back in Business

2010-09-19T21:47:00.000-04:00

So many exciting things are happening in my school kitchen right now that I can’t wait to blog about! I intended on starting up earlier but have been slammed at work. The kitchen crew is down two members. The five of us here are working extra hard, especially because we’re going full force into changing the menu with new and healthy offerings. Here are some things we’ve done so far: -We

Recipe: Smoothie

2010-06-30T14:09:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't smoothies be a wonderful snack option at school, especially when the days are still warm? Smoothies can be packed with ingredient rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein. They're perfect for a quick break. I made a smoothie 2 weeks ago to “test” it out, and I enjoyed it so much I’ve had one almost everyday since. I start with a base recipe of non-fat

Strawberry Season

2010-06-25T12:17:00.001-04:00

The last time I went strawberry picking must have been over twenty years ago when I was no more than five years old. It was a family trip, and my brothers and I had a blast running between rows of strawberries and, of course, sampling just plucked berries. To celebrate the summer and the end of the school year, I decided to go strawberry picking with my fiance, just for fun. And it was!

Brave New Lunch On JamieOliver.com

2010-06-17T09:00:00.027-04:00

Jamie's Food Revolution has made my job of improving school lunch easier because people are finally talking about school lunch and treating it as an important issue. I support Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and have signed Jamie's petition. ( You can too.) Recently I was asked to write an article about Brave New Lunch for Jamie Oliver's website. Click here to read it.

Allergies and Lunch, Part 2

2010-06-16T13:22:00.000-04:00

Gluten-free and lactose-free products Our lunch program All students participate in our lunch program with the exception of our youngest students with severe allergies. Their parents may bring in food for their lunches, and the school nurse takes care of preparing this food - from assembling a gluten-free corn taco to baking a lactose-free pizza in the oven. Playing short-order cook is a

Allergies and Lunch

2010-06-10T11:06:00.001-04:00

Banned from school Today, many kids have allergies, and schools must deal with them. A few years ago, a young student’s airway started closing up and the school nurse gave her an Epi-pen shot. This student is extremely allergic to peanuts. Althought she didn’t ingest any nuts, the nurse believes this student accidently exposed herself to it while in the cafeteria. As a result of this severe

Desserts

2010-06-03T20:56:00.000-04:00

School lunch desserts are a thorn in my side. A parent requested 100% juice popsicles for lunch. Unfortunately, the only ones we found were twice the size of our normal 1.6 oz bars and correspondingly twice the calories and sugar. A vendor gave my cafeteria samples of new whole-wheat cookies made just for schools. The cookies tasted awful and were loaded with more preservatives and sugar

Model School Food Program in Marblehead

2010-05-25T09:37:00.000-04:00

I know there are schools that cook meals from scratch in their own kitchens. Last week, I finally saw such a school first-hand. Laura De Santis, Nutrition Director at the Marblehead Community Charter Public School in Marblehead, MA let me spend a day with her and her staff. The day’s lunch menu: chicken and veggie curry over rice and lentils. Included in the price of lunch are the

New Position

2010-05-20T20:38:00.002-04:00

My school kitchen My school finally offered me the position of food service director! I bet most of you assumed I was the director already. I’ve had some authority to make improvements over the last two years, but it’s been quite limited. I am currently a co-director, and I share the responsibility of running the kitchen with the other co-director. One month I run it, the other month she

MA Farm to School Conference

2010-05-11T14:00:00.004-04:00

I attended the Massachusetts Farm to School Project “Shoptalk” conference a couple weeks ago, which featured speakers that are successfully integrating local farm produce into schools. I’ve always wondered how large school districts start up their programs, and I got to hear from a few different schools, including Boston, the largest in MA. Boston has 135 schools in its district, and

Behind The Kitchen Door Series: Snack Time

2010-05-05T18:44:00.000-04:00

Bag of snacks destined for a lower school class Mid morning snack time is all about prepackaged food at my school. Younger students get snacks delivered to their classroom from the kitchen. Due to food allergies and sensitivities, the list of acceptable snacks keeps getting smaller every year. There’s a two-week rotation of food such as pretzels, graham crackers, string cheese, oyster

Operating Without Clean Water

2010-05-02T11:48:00.000-04:00

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink Yesterday, a water main burst in Weston, Massachusetts leaving Boston and dozens of other communities without clean water for drinking or even hand washing. Since my school is in the affected area, I anticipate many changes in school lunch tomorrow if this isn’t fixed by then. Drinks - We will serve no juice or water

RD, LDN, MS, Ph.D

2010-04-29T09:05:00.000-04:00

I am noticing that a good number of school food service directors, especially the younger ones, are registered dietitians, licensed dieticians and nutritionist, or have a Masters degree or Ph.D in nutrition. I’m not surprised. If I were a parent with a child in a school, I’d want my food service director to have a degree in childhood nutrition. Yet, it peeves me that we need someone with a

Searching For Better Products

2010-04-27T00:14:00.002-04:00

Last Friday, I invited a sales rep of a line of tomato products to do a tasting of his sauces in my school kitchen. I met him at a food show while looking at the ingredients listed on a can of tomato puree at his booth. I invited everyone in the kitchen to participate in the tasting and listen to the sales pitch. A few people were skeptical. Why change what we currently have?

Update

2010-04-25T21:11:00.000-04:00

I’ve slowed down on blogging over the last few weeks. I was trying to put an entry in every weekday, but I’m afraid that was just a little too ambitious. Brave New Lunch is just over a month old, but I’m starting to think I need to come up with a plan for content if I want this blog to be informative and interesting for readers and fun for me to write. I started this

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

In time for Earth Day, my kitchen began rolling out the school's composting program. While we don’t have a composting facility on school grounds, a local company, Save That Stuff, will take away our food waste (and paper products and biodegradable plastic cups) and compost it for us. We began the testing phase of the program last week. Beginning with our middle

Where Does One Begin?

2010-04-21T21:51:00.001-04:00

A lot of people want to do something about their children's school lunch and have asked me, “where does one begin?” It’s a tough question. Every school is different. Every situation is different. However, drawing on my limited experience, I have a few suggestions about the first steps you can take. Read the Rethinking School Lunch Guide. I wrote a recent blog piece about last week. Even

Kids Like Asparagus!

2010-04-16T14:00:00.003-04:00

Earlier this month, I reported that my school cafeteria is featuring asparagus as the item of this month. Despite my concern that it wouldn’t go over well with kids, it worked out just fine. Not every student took asparagus off of our main meal line, but some did and said they liked it! We’ll be serving again soon.

Rethinking School Lunch

2010-04-15T09:53:00.000-04:00

Let's get rid of this stuff! If you have been inspired to do something about school lunch and want to learn more about the issues related to changing your school lunch program, start by reading the Rethinking School Lunch Guide. Available for download online and completely free, I turned to it when I first started working in my school kitchen. Trying to “rethink” my

The Naysayers

2010-04-13T20:15:00.000-04:00

They are in too many school kitchens. They want everything to stay exactly as it’s always been. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense, or if there’s an easier way to do things, a more logical, cheaper, healthier way, the answer’s always no. I’m so glad in the last episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, he was able to get rid of the naysayer in Rod the radio host. I wonder if he does

Behind The Kitchen Door Series: Dishwashing and Reusable Glasses

2010-04-12T19:36:00.005-04:00

When I first started working at my school kitchen, we were already using reusable plates, some utensils, and coffee cups. I advocated for a few other items that were added this year - soupspoons, soup bowls, and glasses. It makes financial sense – with 500 people going through the cafeteria each day, the amount we spend on paper cups easily justifies the cost of glasses and washing them. The

Behind The Kitchen Door Series: Dishwashing and Reusable Glasses

2010-04-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

Though not a glamorous topic, dishwashing is a big piece of the puzzle to improving school lunch. Cooking from scratch uses lots of pots and pans, and more of the kitchen's resources need to go towards washing those items. For example, replacing a frozen pre-panned mac-and-cheese requires us to boil lots of pasta and make a cheese sauce using pots and pans that we need to wash at the end of the

About Brave New Lunch

2010-04-10T14:53:00.001-04:00

Brave New Lunch is one month old today! I’m very happy writing this blog, and I hope all you out there are enjoying it. Close-up of bulgur salad with tomatoes and green beans on the salad bar. I hadn’t revealed much information about myself on the blog, but now I’m going to relax my anonymity policy a bit. I don’t identify with Ms. A, the name on this blog. Also, I plan on writing more

Weeks Worth of Private Chef Meals

2010-04-08T21:30:00.001-04:00