Big Apple retools school meals, one bite at a time

Can a program that serves about 860,000 meals in 1,300 feeding sites daily effect major change? With the right team, it can.

Truly effecting change in school foodservice operations district-wide, particularly the kind that students really notice and appreciate, is tough and complex work in a public school system with over one million students.

But it’s not impossible. The New York City Office of School Support undertook a concerted effort over the past couple of years to overhaul its foodservice system, hoping to boost participation and improve the nutritional profile of the menus. David Berkowitz, executive director of school food services (also known as SchoolFood), sits at the helm of these efforts. Using the power of delegation, he has divvied up the workload among selected specialists who have been appointed to newly created positions and are tasked with weaving changes throughout the district’s network of schools.

Trio of experts: Among the biggest—and most publicized—steps the NYC schools took in this direction was the hiring, in May 2004, of Jorge Collazo as the executive chef and the head of Culinary Concepts (the “food” department). His mission has largely focused on creating new recipes, infusing a higher culinary standard into the cafeterias and improving the image of school foodservice.

Nutrition coordinator Herman McKie and director of marketing Santa DiSclafani also hold positions that SchoolFood created in the past year to achieve objectives such as serving more healthful options, boosting participation and communicating the department’s progress with students, parents and the community at large.

There is already evidence of success. Berkowitz reports that high school participation was up 15% by the end of last school year, owing to efforts made to boost high-schoolers’ confidence in the program, with additions such as salad and deli bars and marketing schemes geared toward teenagers.

Bright and early: Breakfast, which NYC began offering free to all students two school-years ago, is another bright spot. Berkowitz says the system served more than 34 million breakfasts during the 2004-’05 school year, up from 29 million the year before. 

This year, the focus is on the elementary schools, which generate 75% of SchoolFood’s business. “Our goal is to get double-digit growth in all of our elementary schools with our marketing programs,” he explains.

Much of this effort centers on visual upgrades such as new service-line décor and station signage. The department will replace the familiar decorations—such as plastic cows and milk promotions—that have traditionally hung on cafeteria walls with signage directing students to such areas as entrée, salad or deli stations.

The push to standardize the look in all 1,000 elementary schools began last month as part of a grander scheme to create what Berkowitz calls a “SchoolFood Restaurant”—a move intended to strip away all vestiges of “institutional-style” service as much as possible in a system this large.

Much of the department’s work, however, is far less visible than the vibrant artwork that will grace cafeteria walls. Behind the scenes, Collazo and his team are busy refining the end-product—the food. Among the major goals are the development of new recipes and the standardization of the recipes and meals served throughout the schools. The department takes a trickle-down approach with its regional chefs—one for each of the city’s five boroughs—assisting their schools in key areas such as presentation, marketing and recipe development.

Core competency: As important as the marketing efforts, décor enhancements and the look and taste of the food are to Berkowitz and his team, making sure that the food they serve is nutritionally sound is equally crucial.

Leading this effort is McKie, who Berkowitz promoted from a district supervisory position to nutrition coordinator in April.

He is tasked with, among other things, staying abreast of the latest nutrition-related research findings and information and using this knowledge to create and implement a comprehensive strategic plan for menu planning and nutritional education for the school system.

“Basically, being the largest school system in the country, we needed a culinary expert and executive chef to bring us to the next level,” explains Berkowitz. “It also became clear, with nutrition being at the core of our mission, that we really needed a registered dietitian to head up our program from a nutritional standpoint. I felt we needed this position to communicate with many of the nutrition experts and advocacy groups we work with and to coordinate information and activities with medical organizations like the American Heart Association and others.”

Spreading the word: McKie spends much of his time working with influential community-based organizations to spread the word about what the school system is doing to make school lunches healthier; and about what parents and kids, themselves, should know about proper nutrition.

He’s also involved in a student partnership initiative, through which students, principals and parents in each school meet monthly with foodservice managers to discuss various issues, such as whether or not students like what’s on the menu or planning for theme events. “This year we’ve added a school nutrition and health section,” McKie explains, “where we share the latest information on health. We try to have about three to four different topics related to nutrition every month.”

He adds that the meetings give managers an opportunity to share with students and parents the information coming from the various medical and advocacy groups that are working with the foodservice department.

Improved products: Meanwhile, McKie is also working on improving the nutritional profile of the menu. The department has already made a number of adjustments, having worked with manufacturers to make popular menu items healthier, for example, by cutting back on fats, calories and sodium. The school system also swapped all snacks with more healthful options such as baked chips and bagged, sliced fruit.

“We’ve reformulated many products and we’re trying to pull all the trans fat out of our foods,” McKie notes, “and we are reformulating items that do have trans fat. This is going to be a process—at least a year. We have already been successful (for example) with finding a trans fat-free cookie.”