Healthy + Happy #29: ScratchWorks leads school food innovation
To innovate, we need to look to the past. We need to reflect on those moments that changed history’s course and learn from our successes — and our failures. For many school food innovators, they look to the moment when Big Food began filling U.S. school cafeterias with ultra-processed foods, under the guise of efficiency and convenience — a shift that’s had far-reaching consequences that school food leaders are committed to reversing.
How? Going back to our roots (literally): scratch-based cooking in our nation's schools.
ScratchWorks is a first-of-its-kind collective of school food professionals and non-profit organizations, developed by and for food service operators. Unique to this collective is its funding model - the donors, Life Time Foundation and Whole Kids Foundation, are also its partners who continually collaborate with the districts to meet their goals. By building a community around the power of fresh, made-from-scratch meals, ScratchWorks is dedicated to accelerating change in school food and, ultimately, fueling students’ physical, mental and educational well-being.
Last month (April 23-26), ScratchWorks hosted its first Annual Gathering to build momentum for this scratch cooking movement in schools. Here’s what we learned:
Big impact. More than 100 school districts (serving more than 1.1 million students) attended last month’s gathering.
Experience focus. To increase scratch cooking in cafeterias across the country, school food leaders highlighted two specific points of emphasis: 1) sharing experiences and 2) building relationships (without the distraction of vendors).
Big benefits. Scratch cooking gives school districts more control over school meals, which, in turn, allows them to tailor their menu to their community.
For example, two districts shared unique recipes created for their specific communities:
Chickpea Masala submitted by Bellingham Washington Public Schools
Cambodian Lok Lak served at Lowell Public Schools (Massachusetts)
Moments of clarity.
Andrew Zimmern, TV personality, chef, writer and social justice advocate, opened up the gathering by reiterating the importance of this work (referencing the recently released State of Children’s Health from the National Institute for Health Care Management) and sharing the numbers around what it would take to fully invest in scratch cooking:
“The question isn't, ‘Can we afford to do this?’ The fact is we can't afford not to. It would cost us $17 billion to fully restore scratch cooking in our national public school system, including equipment, re-builds, product and staff. Sounds like a lot. But our federal budget is $6.3 trillion annually. So $17 billion is a rounding error when it comes to the cost; it's 0.0027% of the federal budget." (Andrew Zimmern)
Cindy Long, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services Administrator, closed the gathering with an interview, offering up her philosophy on scratch cooking in schools and insight on the new proposed updates to the School Nutrition Standards.
Administrator Long emphasized that the proposed updates are to be executed over 10 years, and they are applied to a menu cycle (not a meal), so with scratch cooking, there’s more flexibility.
In the News
School food round-up.
What we know. Adequate time for lunch and recess have a plethora of benefits (think: increased attention, improved social skills, fewer disruptions in class, etc.).
Beginning in 2024-25, the strongest recess law in the U.S. will go into effect in Washington state, guaranteeing students at least 30 minutes of recess per day.
Order matters. Kids rush less and eat more fruits and vegetables if recess comes first.
Last month, Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced the School Meals During School Closures Act, which would ensure that “our schools are given the flexibility necessary to provide meals to students in the event of a closure.”
Like many, NOSH—Napa’s Operative for School Food Health celebrated National School Lunch Hero Day with matching t-shirts and accolades from students.
Scratch cooking in action. In collaboration with the parent advisory councils to create special menus, St. Paul Public Schools served bison nachos as part of their efforts to celebrate the district's diversity.
Events, Happenings and Opportunities
Chef Ann Foundation’s Bulk Milk is a granting program that provides schools and districts with bulk milk dispensing equipment and support, including a bulk milk dispenser, stand, reusable cups, dish racks, program and marketing materials, and technical assistance. Application open May 16 - July 31, 2023. Register for our informational webinar on May 31st to learn more about the program, or sign up for our Bulk Milk interest list for program updates.
Food and Nutrition Service and Action for Healthy Kids have worked together to offer competitive grants (up to $150,000) for small and/or rural School Food Authorities to support their efforts to improve the nutritional quality of their school meals and meet the Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards criteria. The deadline for submitting a grant application is 5 p.m. EST on May 26. Apply today.
Roseville (Minn.) Area Schools have a variety of openings. Learn more.
Have other national events or grant opportunities you'd like us to highlight? Let us know.