District Administration - June 2009 - (Page 38)

SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS of marketing and strategic development. Elementary students nationwide have found that healthy eating can be fun and delicious through Sodexo’s A-to-Z Salad Bars, in which students enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables for each letter of the alphabet. And the Berkeley (Calif.) Unified School District, which prepares all of its meals from scratch, introduced a worldly flair to its school lunch program by creating an international marketplace theme. The program offers healthy foods from cultures and nations around the world. Using Local Farms To get students healthy and help the local economy, many districts have also begun sourcing some of their produce from local farmers—a win-win for both parties. The national Farm to School programs connect schools with local farms to improve student nutrition, provide health and nutrition education opportunities, and support local small farmers. Kids First, a nonprofit that is dedicated to improving the nutritional and physical well-being of children in Rhode Island, discovered the beauty of the Rhode Island potato. Local potatoes cost less than frozen French fries. “We found a niche product that works better for our schools, pays the farmer better, and is cheaper and healthier than its processed counterpart,” says Dorothy Brayley, Kids First’s executive director. Schlosberg adds that some districts, like the Katonah-Lewisboro (N.Y.) School District in Westchester County, N.Y., use organic foods. But the bigger trend is in buying local produce. “We have been working around the country with our distribution networks so that we can offer local produce,” she says. Thanks to a partnership between ARAMARK and Kids First, which holds an annual “Harvest Week” every fall for various Rhode Island districts, students eat local produce and learn which fruits and vegetables are locally grown. The farmers are also invited to speak. “The interaction between schools and farms fosters a strong sense of 38 June/July 2009 SPECIAL SECTION The Wholesome Chef Jim rowan, food service director of two northwest school districts, on feeding students quality meals INTERvIEW BY ANgELA PASCOPELLA NortherN CAliforNiA NAtive Jim rowAN is pAssioNAte About fooD. A self-taught chef, rowan switched last summer from culinary director at Gonzaga university in spokane, wash., to food service director at Astoria (ore.) school District and Naselle-Grays river valley (wash.) school District, which use Chartwells as their food service provider. rowan serves fruits and vegetables regularly and uses chicken raised without antibiotics. rowan “came to us with a passion for sustainable living,” says Caroline Nelson, a Chartwells spokeswoman. Q A: What made you switch from college food service to K12? It was a challenge for me. Every bit of K12 is different. It’s about cents per plate as opposed to dollars per plate in higher education. Of course, coming out of restaurants and hotels, everything is retail priced. Here you are set with a price you need to work with and work backwards. You work with the best products you can get and the most local you can get. The cost of food is a challenge, and it’s a great exercise to put it all together on a regular basis. What is your philosophy on food? My philosophy is really about serving balanced meals and teaching students to eat in a balanced manner. Chartwells provides training and great tools for our food service directors, chefs and cooks to accomplish this. I believe it is our duty to not only feed our students with the healthiest food but to educate them on how it is grown and how far away it comes from to reach that lunch line. Tell us more about your dishes. I will get a parent every now and then saying, “My son had this for lunch and I’m curious—what was that?” They are interested. In March, it was Mediterranean focus month and we made chicken cacciatore and turkey and ham paella, and we modified what is traditionally found in such dishes. For example, the chicken cacciatore dish we make is a lot more basic than what you’d normally see. The typical recipe uses whole breast of chicken, noodles, parmesan cheese. In our case, we use the commodity-diced chicken and make it more of a casserole style, using commodity protein. And you use what’s available. I would not substitute tomatoes, for example— that’s not something you put in a recipe unless you live in Florida or San Diego. I wouldn’t include an item on the menu that is out of season, with less flavor, and that comes from halfway across the world. Moving forward, I will use more protein-rich grains or plant protein, like beans, legumes, tofu or quinoa, which has a huge amount of protein. How do you prepare your meals? We make anywhere from three and six scratch meals a month. Of course, by scratch I mean we’re still using canned sauce, but yes, they are not just coming out of a box to the tray. Our students are becoming much more involved, and they want to know where their food is coming from—how it’s processed and how it’s grown. www.DistrictAdministration.com read more on Jim rowan’s success. District Administration http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - June 2009

District Administration - June 2009
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Stimulus Monitor
District Profile
Admin Profile
Crisis Response
Tech Disruptions
A Deeper Shade of Green
The New School Lunch
Business Brings Sustainable Lessons to School
A Netbook for Every Student
Vision Videos Empower Students
New Books
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Problem Solution
Online Edge

District Administration - June 2009