Inside School Food
72 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 7 years ago - ★★★★ - 7 ratingsA showcase for fresh insights that are making a difference, and progressive solutions that really work. Peer leaders from across the nation share their stories about fighting hunger, coping with regulation, and meeting sustainability goals. About winning kids over and changing lives with creative menus packed with fresh whole food. Need help keeping up with emerging school nutrition policy, legislation, and research? We’ve got that covered, too. From the Heritage Radio Network.
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Episodes
Episode 22: The Urban School Food Alliance travels to France. Vive la révolution?
November 03, 2014 20:11 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MBFood service leaders from six of the nation’s very largest districts–New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Orlando–have joined together over shared reform goals: lower prices, more sustainable production practice, and a pronounced shift in not just what’s served, but how–including how we talk to kids about food. And who best to consult with about that? The French, bien sur. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Photo: Pierre Bonnard, The Children’s Meal, 1895 ...
Episode 21: Sustainable California Chicken for California Kids
October 27, 2014 15:23 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBThree very big districts—Riverside, San Diego, and Oakland—are taking farm to school to the next level with an enormous, year-round commitment to sustainably grown California chicken. Their ambitious purchasing initiative, which has been several years in the making, is designed to send a clear and certain message to the poultry industry: Clean up your act. Our students’ health is at stake. Find out more on this week’s episode of Inside School Food. This program was brought to you by Whol...
Episode 20: This Radish is Golden
October 20, 2014 15:45 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBWhat community isn’t proud of its school trophies? Across Georgia, there’s a new kind of prize that recognizes exemplary work in farm-to-school, named after a tasty local vegetable. And winning at any level—gold, silver, or bronze—can generate the kind of excitement and support that a good school meals program deserves. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures. “We’re creating a real experience around food for kids.” [7:30] —Erin Croom on Inside School Food “Educating the...
Episode 19: Farm To School Program Evaluation
October 13, 2014 23:32 - 35 minutes - 33 MBFarm to school purchasing pursues social, environmental, economic, and public health goals. How to evaluate progress in reaching them, and how to share ideas and learning across a diverse, national community of practice? In this episode, learn about two new resources that are designed to help. This program was brought to you by Rolling Press
Episode 18: A Visit to Traverse City, MI: “Space Broccoli” & Other Adventures in Farm to School
October 06, 2014 16:21 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBFamily farms dominate the agricultural landscape of the Lower Michigan Peninsula, growing lots more than those celebrated sour cherries. Romanesco and kohlrabi, for instance, which the children of Traverse City Area Public Schools have come to enjoy are grown there. Learn how the district is drawing in local growers with the help of a network of community partners. This program was brought to you by White Oak Pastures. “The development of the wineries and the growing of the grapes have spaw...
Episode 17: Charting a Farm to School Course? Don’t Leave Without this Roadmap
September 29, 2014 19:39 - 34 minutes - 31.7 MBWe’re so excited about Farm to School Month 2014 that we’re starting two days early. Join us for a walk through USDA’s totally indispensable, very user-friendly guide to launching, bidding, and buying farm to school. Author Christina Conell talks about what’s in it, including best practice examples from all over the nation. This program was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA. “As a taxpayer, I want to make sure schools are getting the best products for the best price at the best quantity ...
Episode 16: Lunch Lessons from Teenage Chefs
September 22, 2014 19:52 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBWant fresh, USDA-compliant meals that kids will get excited about? How about putting kids in charge? Cooking Up Change does just that. Subjected to the same tight budgets, strict nutrition standards, and logistical challenges that adult school menu planners face every day, teams of high school culinary students in ten cities compete to create healthy school lunches that their peers will enjoy. The winners make their way to Washington, DC, every spring to offer samples to legislators and put ...
Episode 15: How Smart Are Your Lunchrooms?
September 15, 2014 20:06 - 32 minutes - 30.3 MBA school cafeteria can be a highly charged environment. Crowds of students press into the line, eager to zip through so they can get to their friends and recess. They’re hungry. It’s very loud. And they’re only children. Can we really expect them to focus on healthy choices? Experts from the Cornell Center of Behavioral Economics say we can, with the help of simple, low or no-cost interventions at the point of sale. It’s just marketing, but it can work like magic. This program was brought to...
Episode 14: Let’s Talk Nutrition Standards
September 08, 2014 16:32 - 31 minutes - 29.4 MBInside School Food kicks off the new school year with a discussion of the nutrition standards mandated by the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. This school year, SFAs are being asked to do even more–more fruit, more whole grain, and less sodium, along with new, very strict guidelines on a la carte and snack items. Can they do it? Two food service directors from medium-size districts at opposite ends of the country weigh in on their successes and challenges to date, and their hopes and co...
Episode 13: School Lunch Around the World
August 11, 2014 22:35 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBExplore school lunch around the world on the season finale of Inside School Food. Why are we so riveted by pictures of school meals in other countries? Perhaps because it’s a shared experience the world over, and perhaps because these images are so rich in information. “Unpack a school lunch,” writes guest Andrea Curtis, author of What’s For Lunch: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World, “and you’ll discover that food is connected to issues that matter to everyone—things such as climate c...
Episode 12: Re-learning to Cook: Boot Camp for Food Service
August 04, 2014 18:57 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBIf you’re old enough, you remember the days when “cafeteria ladies” had a craft and the food at school was hand made, right down to the dinner rolls. After decades of moving away from that proud tradition, districts are slowly returning to it. In Maryland, a stand-out “boot camp” for food service workers statewide teaches basic cookery, nutrition science, professional kitchen protocols, and much more. It’s a model for training programs that are emerging all over the nation as schools work th...
Episode 11: School Garden to Cafeteria
July 14, 2014 14:59 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBSchool gardens are now being embraced nationwide, as is farm-to-school. But school garden-to-cafeteria? It’s what’s coming next–well-established in some districts, in fact, which offer valuable resources to beginners. Concerned about food safety? Funding? Whether or not to buy student-grown or accept it as a donation? Is it worth the trouble–does it interest children in eating more produce, trying new fruits and veggies? The nation’s two leading experts, from Colorado and Oregon, discuss all...
Episode 10: Have it Your Way
July 07, 2014 17:31 - 43 minutes - 40 MBHAVE IT YOUR WAY through partnerships with nimble small and mid-size processors. Want your own wild-rice meatloaf? A baked falafel made with local beans? Tyson and Schwan’s can’t help, but there are newcomers to K-12 food service who can. In this episode of Inside School Food, we’ll meet two of them and learn how to get healthy, clean-label foods developed or adapted to your specifications through direct processor-SFA collaboration. This program was brought to you by Whole Foods Market. “Th...
Episode 9: Do Stricter Meal Standards Lead to Better Health Outcomes?
June 30, 2014 17:03 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBSchool food has been commanding headlines for well over a month, as controversy rages over costs and complications associated with implementation of stricter new nutrition standards. If you’re confused over who’s on what side of this debate, and what it’s really all about, you’re not alone. It’s gotten so political. Today we’re stepping away from all of that to simply look at what the standards are designed to do for kids, and whether or not they’ve been able to do it. We’ll discuss three st...
Episode 8: Salad Bars Part 2: Strategies for Success from Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools
June 23, 2014 15:22 - 32 minutes - 30 MBSalad bars aren’t rocket science, but getting them right calls for careful, common-sense assembly with the right ingredients. If you’ve listened to Salad Bars Part 1 (and we suggest that you do), maybe you’re wondering if you can get salad bars to work in your district–or work better. Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools can help. Need equipment donation? Technical assistance? A community of practice? You’ve come to the right place. This program was brought to you by Bonnie Plants. “78% of the ...
Episode 7: Cafeteria Composting
June 16, 2014 18:33 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBComposting and recycling at school isn’t just about eco-friendly waste diversion. It also provides students with a powerful lesson in sound environmental practice that they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives. The message is simple: what comes from the earth can be returned to enrich it, so it can provide for us again and again. How to get started? Today’s guests, from San Francisco, CA and Northampton, MA, will tell you how: Start small. Champion your early adopters. Develop educ...
Episode 6: Salad Bars Part 1: Riverside Unified School District
June 09, 2014 19:38 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBAre you a salad bar skeptic? If you are, you’re not alone. Many a committed K-12 food service director is hesitant to try, out of concern over participation, waste, expense, mess, and food safety. And now salad bars in schools are seemingly even trickier to pull off. How do you insure that kids are meeting their daily fruit and vegetable quotas–and the required weekly balance of green and orange veggies, and beans and peas–if you let them serve themselves? For answers, we will first turn to ...
Episode 5: The Case for Fresh & Sustainable Chicken
June 02, 2014 20:24 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBIn Jefferson County, Colorado, a better school lunch often starts with better chicken: locally and sustainably grown, without antibiotics, and prepared from scratch. In the world of K-12 food service, this is widely regarded as an Olympian swan dive off a 33-foot-high board–beautiful to behold, but not something you can or should try at home. Today’s guests on Inside School Food explain how they do it (turns out it’s not that hard, if you’ve got ovens and the right supplier), and how their e...
Episode 4: DC Central Kitchen
May 26, 2014 20:58 - 32 minutes - 30.3 MBThis week’s episode of Inside School Food is the first installment of a series of episodes we’re calling “And Now for Something Completely Different,” in which we profile programs and business models that upend common assumptions about what’s possible in school food. In the schools served by not-for-profit DC Central Kitchen, children formerly accustomed to pizza and breaded chicken fingers eagerly chow down on house-made fresh food that routinely includes beets, cauliflower, and collards. T...
Episode 3: Kitchen Equipment
May 19, 2014 18:36 - 32 minutes - 30 MBToday on Inside School Food. we’re talking kitchen equipment—What do we have? What do we need? And how can we go on doing without under new meal-pattern requirements that call for more—and more perishable—produce, that staff need to safely store, prepare, portion, and serve? Jessica Donze Black of the Pew Safe and Healthful Kids’ Food Project and Jon Dickl of Knox County, TN Public Schools discuss widespread infrastructure deficits in school districts coast to coast, and what steps you...
Episode 2: Community Eligibility
May 12, 2014 15:28 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MBThe face of free school food is about to change in some neighborhoods thanks to something called Community Eligibility. Community Eligibility helps bring universal meal service to high poverty districts. It’s been introduced in phases, and this coming school year it’s going national. This week on Inside School Food, Laura Stanley is chatting with two experts who can help listeners understand the specifics of Community Eligibility — Madeleine Levin, senior policy analyst in the Child Nutritio...
Episode 1: Pilot: Reducing Waste and Meeting the Bottom Line
May 05, 2014 14:52 - 35 minutes - 33 MBGo inside school food on Inside School Food, a brand new show on Heritage Radio Network! Paying for the new school lunch on just six extra cents (yes, you heard that right) per meal: Gitta Grether-Sweeney, Director of Nutrition Services at Portland, OR Public Schools and Bertrand Weber, Director of Culinary and Nutrition Services for Minneapolis Public Schools, wrestle with one of the thorniest issues in school food today: How can districts afford the abundant produce now required under the ...