Sea vegetables make a splash with diners in schools and healthcare

The nonprofit Food for Climate League (FCL) is on a mission to put sustainable aquatic foods on more menus. So late last year, FCL partnered with foodservice provider CulinArt Group, a division of Compass, to pilot test a program focused on sea vegetables in three dining programs.

The logical place to start was at the company’s Find Your Flavor stations already in operation, said Stephanie Dorfman, Director of Wellness, Nutrition and Sustainability with CulinArt.

At George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, Find Your Flavor stations are available to students so they can customize menu items with various seasonings and toppings. The add-ons are categorized by tastes like salty, spicy and umami.

The two schools added three types of sea vegetable seasonings under the “umami” category at the stations, said Dorfman. Furikake (a blend of dried, roasted sea vegetables, sesame seeds, salt and sugar), wakame, an edible seaweed, and nori flakes, made from the toasted seaweed sheets typically used to wrap sushi, were on hand to customize salads, bowls and Asian noodle dishes.

“We worked with FCL on educational materials, displaying posters at the Find Your Flavor stations that provided information about the sea vegetable seasonings,” said Dorfman. “There was a population at each of the schools that was already familiar with furikake and nori, but we explained a bit more about their health and sustainability benefits.”

FCL also provided a study kit for chefs and foodservice directors to assist them in planning menus. Through a CulinArt Teaching Kitchen, the chef prepared a Seaweed Avocado Salad made with wakame, encouraging students to taste and smell the sea vegetable. As the dietitian on the team, Dorfman worked closely with the chefs to communicate the health and sustainability message.

CulinArt also manages one of the outpatient locations of Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York. The team there held a cooking demo, preparing a teriyaki chicken entrée with a side of wakame salad.

At George School, CulinArt expanded the sea vegetable awareness campaign with a focused Teaching Kitchen curriculum and an interactive wellness table that invited students to mix and match from five different sea vegetables atop traditional steamed rice. “Educating students on why sea vegetables are good for the planet and good for you was just Step One,” said Ali Bernardi, VP of Marketing and Strategy for CulinArt. “From there we wanted students to explore what sea vegetables taste like and then learn how to incorporate these superfoods into their diets.”

Dorfman said that CulinArt will continue to feature more sea vegetables on menus and run Teaching Kitchens to demonstrate how to prepare and cook the aquatic ingredients. She also plans to organize wellness events highlighting the sea vegetables’ nutrition and sustainability attributes.

Food for Climate League has compiled a comprehensive report detailing the results of the pilot test at CulinArt locations as well as The Good Eating Company, which manages foodservice in corporate dining. Although CulinArt focused on sea vegetables, FCL advocates exploring the broader sustainable aquatic foods category to make climate-smart choices, which includes bivalves such as clams, oysters and mussels as well as sea lettuce, algae and kelp.