Episode 56: Better School Food: Borrowed, Hacked, and Shared

Today we venture into new territory with the help of Chef Lisa Feldman, who is Director of Culinary Services for Sodexo USA. As a major provider of school meals (413 districts, two million meals daily), it’s significant and influential in ways you may never have imagined. The company’s ambitious strategies to introduce ever-fresher, more wholesome, and more appealing food on a mass scale are freely shared throughout the K-12 nutrition industry. “Nothing is proprietary,” says Feldman, who prizes creative collaboration not just with processors and trade groups, but also self-ops and even Sodexo competitors. “When districts are all doing their own thing, it’s more expensive.”

Additional Resources

Wild Alaska Pollock: 12 great recipes!: K-12 collection developed by Sodexo for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers

“Sodexo finding whole grain success in school food service,” Food Business News, June 25, 2015

“Lisa Feldman’s Yogurt and White Bean ‘Ranch’ Dressing,” New York Times, June 9, 2014

Culinary Institute of America’s “Healthy Flavors, Healthy Kids” website