In 2011, the country established universal free, eco-friendly school meals at the national level. The win came after decades of grassroots efforts pushing to expand sustainably sourced, healthy meals for students. As of 2024, more than 5 million students in almost 12,000 schools across the country receive daily nutritious school meals, according to the School Meals Coalition.

“School meals reach every student, every day, creating one of the largest institutional procurement systems in the country,” Dr. Seulgi Son, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Yonsei University, who has researched South Korea’s public procurement, tells Food Tank. “Because school meals are universal and publicly funded, they embody social equity, while simultaneously shaping demand for eco-friendly and local agricultural products.”

Seoul has become a leader among several municipalities providing universal, free, and eco-friendly school lunches, serving more than 1 million students daily. Now, the Climate-Friendly Meal Service is going a step further to align local procurement with global sustainability goals while educating students about climate change, Son tells Food Tank.

The initiative incorporates Climate-Friendly Meal Days twice per month that combine plant-forward meals with nutritional planning, education, and menu diversification, Son tells Food Tank. She says they are designed to be more holistic than earlier no-meat campaigns, which focus mainly on removing meat from menus.

On Climate-Friendly Meal Days, schools experiment with a variety of low-carbon ingredients, including seasonal vegetables, legumes, tofu, mushrooms, and locally produced grains, Son says. “The key difference is that they are framed not as dietary restrictions but as a positive ‘climate-conscious’ choice, tied to broader sustainability goals.”

According to Son, nutrition teachers have long provided expertise in schools to ensure meals are nutritionally balanced and aligned with health education. They also serve as a bridge between policy goals and implementation in schools. “In the Climate-Friendly Meal Service, they will be critical in translating abstract climate goals into concrete menus and educational modules.”

“When students plant, harvest, and cook with local vegetables, they can directly see the relationship between food, climate, and community,” Son tells Food Tank. She says these experiential activities reinforce environmental education and food literacy and help embed climate awareness into students’ everyday behavior.

Son shares that she was personally reminded of this when her five-year-old recently announced, “We should eat local food.”

“At first, I assumed he had overheard one of my Zoom meetings, but I later learned he had picked up the idea through gardening at his kindergarten, where children grow vegetables and see them prepared into meals.” For Son, the realization emphasized the importance of these hands-on experiences.

Son’s research shows that South Korea’s success in adopting universal eco-friendly school meals has relied on both top-down policy and strong grass-roots mobilization combined with cross-sector governance. Professional expertise embedded in schools is also key. She explains that civic organizations and activists have played a critical role in achieving the adoption of universal eco-friendly school meals and, in some cases, even manage or co-manage public meal service support centers created by municipalities.

In her current research, Son is exploring how Climate-Friendly Meal Days are being implemented across schools, how nutrition teachers manage daily constraints as they work to meet policy goals, and how students internalize the program’s educational messages. She will also examine how this new framework impacts procurement opportunities for local farmers.

“For the food system, the goal is to demonstrate that public procurement can simultaneously advance equity, sustainability, and resilience.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Shin, S.Y.

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At the “Food is Medicine and Eating for Health” summit during Climate Week NYC 2025, which Food Tank hosted in partnership with the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, leaders in food, health, policy, and culture spoke about how food can strengthen communities and support a healthier future despite these challenges.

“It is baffling to me, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, that we would force people to choose whether they are going to eat or get healthcare, have dinner or pay their rent, and that’s really what [these SNAP cuts are] going to do,” says U.S. Congressman Daniel S. Goldman. “But this actually provides us with a unique opportunity to reimagine how we want to provide healthcare and food assistance.”

Goldman adds that “the impact of all of this on our small businesses is exacerbating significant problems.” But according to Grace Young, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food historian, a food-is-medicine approach can also help sustain those small food businesses that need support now more than ever, as inflation and tariffs create economic uncertainty. 

“One of the great hidden secrets is to shop in Chinatown, where the quality is so high and the prices are so low, because Chinese customers are very frugal,” says Young. “You can find everything in Chinatown, and the fruits and vegetables are generally local. This is an opportunity to eat local and support mom and pop restaurants.”

Panelists agreed that food insecurity is a multidimensional issue, one that requires a multidimensional approach to solutions. 

“It’s no one discipline’s job to solve food insecurity,” says Dr. Christine Going, Senior Advisor at the Food Security Program Office within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. “It’s rare for food insecurity to exist in isolation; if you’re food insecure, there’s probably something else happening.” 

For example, issues like “poverty [are] inextricable from this food as medicine conversation,” says Brandon Lombardi, Chief Sustainability Officer at Sprouts Farmers Market.

A‑dae Romero‑Briones, Vice President of Policy and Research at the First Nations Development Institute, also emphasized the systemic factors at play when it comes to health and food security. America is a highly individualized society, but health is a collective issue to solve.

“Health is not only dependent on what one person does, it’s dependent on what the community around you does and how healthy the environment is,” says Romero-Briones. “In America, when everything becomes an individual action or an individual fault, we really lose sight of all these other impacts that create a healthy person in a healthy community and a healthy environment.”

And any conversation about health in the U.S. must include gender and race, says Tanya Fields, Executive Director at The Black Feminist Project. 

“The medical system is invested in keeping Black women and children sick…we sterilize these conversations and make it seem like these discrepancies and disparities don’t exist,” says Fields. “This is happening because people are profiting from it.”

Fields sees food as a form of radical resistance. She works to uplift stories of successfully using food as medicine within her own community: “I’m so sick of people coming to the Bronx and only talking about us through the lens of pathology. There are good things happening in the Bronx,” says Fields, who urges the audience to fund organizations like The Black Feminist Projects and others led by women, immigrants, people of color, and members of the queer community. 

Finally, Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, challenged the audience to engage with the next generation about the interconnected issues discussed at the summit—and empower them to take action.

“What would it look like to pick out one thing from this panel that inspires you and talk to a young person about it?” says Waugh. “People are becoming more connected with how food makes them feel…Future voters, the kids who are out there seeing this swirl around them, they care, and I think it’s our responsibility to play a role in helping them see themselves as part of that work.”

Watch the full livestreamed event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

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“School meals are a very powerful connector. They can really connect the plate, production, and everything that comes with it,” says Aulo Gelli, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. “For every US$1 spent [on school meals], you’ve got a US$4 return…It’s a very good investment.”

School meals are a social safety net that improves attendance, academic performance, and critical nutrition for children. With regenerative school meals, these benefits extend far beyond the classroom: Locally and regeneratively grown crops produce significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crops by enhancing soil carbon sequestration, reducing synthetic fertilizer use, and limiting shipping distance and storage time. This supports local economies while providing more nutritious meals to children.

“It’s human dignity and respect, everyone has the right to food, but it also makes good economic sense, to develop these communities, you have to start there,” says Paul Polman, the former CEO of Unilever and co-author of Net Positive.

Anna Lappé, Executive Director of The Global Alliance for the Future of Food, says that the return on investment speaks for itself: “One of the key messages is not to think about this transition [to regenerative school meals] as a burden or cost but an investment that will pay over and over again.” 

However, panelists stressed that school meal programs are at risk amid limited financial resources and a changing global climate.

“We are losing meals today, and we will be losing more meals tomorrow,” says Sara Farley, Vice President, Global Food Portfolio, The Rockefeller Foundation. “So what we’re really talking about here is how we future-proof our food system.”

Jennifer Burney, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences & Earth System Science at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, presented data on how regenerative school meals offer a win-win opportunity for students and farmers. According to Burney, across Africa alone, 2.62 million more children could be fed in the current climate with regeneratively grown grains, and “for almost every country in the world, a switch to regenerative agriculture means higher yields.” 

However, speakers emphasized the complexity of building the infrastructure to grow, transport, prepare, and serve regenerative school meals so communities can reap these benefits. According to Tufts University, one in four school meals is of poor nutritional quality, with school kitchens relying on imported foods and ultra-processed snacks. There is a need for investment in regional supply chains as well as education around preparing and serving fresh, locally grown dishes at schools.

Mariana Mazzucato, a Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, argued for tackling these challenges the way the United States tackled reaching the moon—with deep investment and involvement across numerous government agencies and sectors. 

“Imagine if the mission was to make sure that every child in the world had access to at least one, maybe two, meals a day from regenerative food, generated with local manufacturing,” says Mazzucato. “Imagine if we actually took the idea of school meals as an opportunity to do exactly what we did to go to the moon? As long as we just see school meals as part of the social safety net of the government, then it ends up being, by design, not taken seriously.”

Gerardo Martinez, Founder and Owner at Wild Kid Acres, presented a powerful case study of what’s working from Edgewater, Maryland. In 2019, Martinez bought five acres of cheap land—an “unofficial dump”—and set out to become a first-time farmer. He invested in regenerative agricultural practices and opened the farm up to the community, bringing children in to work and help build the strategic vision of the farm. Last year, the farm saw 50,000 children in total and fed the local school using donations. 

Several children from Wild Kid Acres took to the stage to discuss the questions that arose once they connected with the land: “I wonder why the food in my school tastes different from the farm’s food. Why aren’t there farmers who look like me? How do we grow food ethically and still care for our planet?” And finally, “Why isn’t anyone helping the farmers?”

Panelists agreed that producing healthy school meals is an incredibly complex challenge that requires participation across sectors, significant investment, and deep systemic changes. But Adam Met, a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated musician with AJR and Founder of Planet Reimagined, argues that significant strides could be made—especially in reaching across political aisles—with simple tweaks to language.

“The language of climate change—of 1.5 degrees, sustainability, or even something like regenerative agriculture—that is not resonating with people,” says Met. “Effective policy is just as much about the policy itself and the implementation of it as the language that we’re using when we’re talking to people on the different sides of the political sector…We need to be creating more collaboration and talking to people who disagree with us.”

Watch the full event on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.

The post School Meals Can Nourish Children—and Regenerate the Food System appeared first on Food Tank.

Confirmed speakers and moderators across the week include: Eric Adjepong (chef, TV host); Chitra Agrawal (Brooklyn Delhi); Jamil Ahmad (UNEP); Jamie Ager (Hickory Nut Gap); Alexia Akbay (Symbrosia); Tonya Allen (McKnight Foundation); Douglas Alexander (Lions Clubs International); Appolinaire Djikeng (ILRI); Christa Barfield (FarmerJawn); Luiz Beling (Apeel Sciences); Eitan Bernath (UN WFP); Mark Bittman (Community Kitchen); Stacy Blondin (WRI); Alison Bodor (AFFI); Patrick Brown (Nature for Justice); Will Brinkerhoff (University of Michigan); Jennifer Burney (Stanford); Nick Cain (Patrick J. McGovern Foundation); Sean Carlson (WNYC); Augusto Castro-Núñez (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT); Cecilia Chang (Mission Barns); Sweta Chakraborty (We Don’t Have Time); Emily Weedon Chapman (World Bank); Harry Chrispin (Hilton); Nikki Clifton (UPS Foundation); Melissa Clark (The New York Times); Clara Coleman (farmer); Julia Collins (Planet FWD); Dana Cowin (Progressive Hedonist); Emily Coppel (The Rockefeller Foundation); Abbie Corse (The Corse Farm Dairy); Matthew Dillon (Organic Trade Association); Maddy DeVita (chef, WFP USA); Vaughn Duitsman (Bartlett); Sheryll Durrant (Just Food); Nancy Easton (Wellness in the Schools); Oliver English (Common Table Creative); Simon English (Common Table Creative); Adriano Espaillat (U.S. Congress); Florence Fabricant (The New York Times); Sara Farley (The Rockefeller Foundation); Tim Fink (American Farmland Trust); Kathleen Finlay (Glynwood Center); Olivia Fuller (Fuller Acres); Evan Fraser (University of Guelph); David Gelles (The New York Times); Jeroen Gerlag (Climate Group); Daniel S. Goldman (U.S. Congress); Jay Goldmark (Stone House Farm); Kelly Goodejohn (Starbucks); Leslie Gordon (Food Bank For NYC); Robert Graham (FRESH Med); Don Grant (Cuna del Mar); Stephanie Grotta (Target); Miguel Guerra (Mita); Dana Gunders (ReFED); Riana Lynn (Journey Foods); Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance); Sarela Herrada (SIMPLi); Kelly Hilovsky (ButcherBox); Ingrid Hoffmann (chef, host); Patrick Holden (Sustainable Food Trust); Robert Hokanson (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints); Isabelle Kamariza (Solid’Africa); Sam Kass (Acre Venture Partners); Mark Kaplan (Wholechain; Better Food Future); Sarah Kapnick (J.P. Morgan); Amy Keister (Compass Group); Geoffrey Kie (Kie’s Pies); Kat Kinsman (Food & Wine); Jon Kung (chef, author); Priya Krishna (The New York Times); Rachel Krupa (The Goods Mart); Corby Kummer (Aspen Institute; The Atlantic); Tamika Lawrence (Broadway artist); Kenneth Lee (Lotus Foods); Caitlin Leibert (Whole Foods Market); Paul Lightfoot (Patagonia Provisions); Brandon Lombardi (Sprouts Farmers Market); Lorena Lourido Gomez (IKEA); Brita Lundberg (Lundberg Family Farms); Bryce Lundberg (Lundberg Family Farms); Geeta Maker-Clark (NorthShore University HealthSystem); Camilla Marcus (west~bourne); Gerardo Martinez (Wild Kid Acres); Brian Mattingly (Star Hill Farm, Maker’s Mark); Sea Matias (farmer, organizer); Jenny Lester Moffitt (American Farmland Trust); Anne McBride (James Beard Foundation); Jennifer McClellan (U.S. Congress); Caleb McClennan (RARE); Jay McEntire (Arva); Joshua McFadden (chef, restaurateur); David Moscow (From Scratch); Bianca Moebius-Clune (American Farmland Trust); Roni Neff (Johns Hopkins University); Marion Nestle (NYU, emerita); Justina Nixon-Saintil (IBM); Clare Reichenbach (James Beard Foundation); Ricardo Levins Morales (artist); Bob Quinn (farmer, Kamut); Caroline Radice (Black Dog Farm); Chloe Sorvino (Forbes); Kim Severson (The New York Times); Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef; NATIFS); Sabrina Servais (Organic Valley); Jilly Stephens (City Harvest); Kimberley Sundy (Kellanova); Ron Mardesen (Niman Ranch); Máximo Torero Cullen (FAO); Eve Turow-Paul (Food for Climate League); Stacey Vanek Smith (Bloomberg); Marcela Valladolid (Matriarca Foods); Grace Young (cookbook author); Karen Washington (Black Urban Growers); April Wilson (Seven W Farm); Andrew Zimmern (chef, TV host); Prahlada Rastogi (Youth Poetry Winner, Stop Food Waste Day); and Sloan Spiegel (youth poet).

Performers across the week include: Afra Hines (Hadestown; Hamilton tour; former Rockette); Amber Rubarth (Cover Crop); Antoine L. Smith (MJ the Musical; The Color Purple); Brandon Burks (Gypsy; Penthouse IV); Cajai Kennedy (Wicked; Frozen; The Lion King tour); Celia Hottenstein (Wicked; Phantom tour); Chelle Denton (Jagged Little Pill tour; Smash); Clair Rachel Howell (Wicked); Daniel J. Maldonado (& Juliet); Douglas Ewart (composer, multi-instrumentalist); Eliza Ohman (Hamilton; SIX); Emily Kristen Morris (Wicked tour; Something Rotten tour); Janayé McAlpine (MJ: The Musical; Moulin Rouge!); Jennafer Newberry (Wicked); Jennifer Noble (King Kong; Kinky Boots); Joey Contreras (In Pieces); Jordan Tyson (Gypsy; The Notebook); Jidenna (Grammy-nominated, Classic Man); Nana Kwabena (Grammy-winning producer); Penthouse IV (The Prom; Aladdin; The Great Gatsby); Racquel Williams (The Book of Mormon); Ryan Fielding Garrett (Kinky Boots; Wicked); Noah Turner (Jersey Boys); Adam Cole Klepper (Gypsy; Spamalot); Maria Caputo (Off-Broadway, 54 Below); Micah Elijah Caldwell (A Strange Loop); Rebekah Bruce (Mean Girls; Dead Outlaw); Cullen Curth (The Karate Kid Musical); Nick Potocki (Dead Outlaw); Hannah Verdi (In Pieces); and the Catalyst Coffee cast — Stacey Sargeant, Kalyne Coleman, Keshav Moodliar, Erin Neufer, Alex Morf, and Brooks Brantly.

“The urgency of the climate crisis demands that we not only talk about solutions but also bring together the people who can make them happen. At our Summits, we’re creating a space where food system leaders—from farmers to policymakers to chefs—can collaborate, share insights, and create tangible solutions,” says Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank. “This is how we move from talk to action, and how we make food part of the solution to the climate crisis.”

Co-hosts and partners across the 15 Summits include: Acme Smoked Fish; Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; American Farmland Trust; Applegate; Arva; Atarraya; Better Food Future; Broadway Green Alliance; ButcherBox; Certified Origins; J.P. Morgan; Journey Foods; Kerry Dairy Ireland; King Arthur Baking; Lundberg Family Farms; McKnight Foundation; Meat Institute; Nature’s Fynd; Niman Ranch; Organic Valley; Regal Springs; Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; The James Beard Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundation; TikTok; UN Environment Programme; Unilever; Wholechain; and World Food Program USA, with deep thanks to Great Performances for powering culinary experiences and Arva for receptions all week.

These co-hosts and partners emphasize the importance of bringing together food systems leaders at global climate events such as Climate Week NYC.

“We know that our global food system sits at the heart of both the climate crisis and the solution. That’s why summits like this one are so important during Climate Week,” Dorothy Shaver, Global Food Sustainability Lead at Unilever, says about Food Tank’s “A Roadmap to a Delicious, Nutritious, and Regenerative Food Future for All” Summit. “They bring together changemakers from every corner of the food world to inspire new ideas, spark collaboration, and accelerate progress. My hope is that attendees walk away with a renewed sense of urgency—and optimism—for how we can nourish both people and planet.”

The week’s Summits focus on regenerative food systems from various angles, from school meals to financial sustainability for farmers to transparency.

“Regenerative agriculture is the climate solution that should be the highest priority for both policymakers and the private sector. As we explore agriculture’s role in building resilient supply chains and achieving net-zero commitments, we see that the impact from investing in regenerative agriculture improves farmer livelihoods, builds resilient supply chains, and improves soil health,” says Jay McEntire, CEO of Arva.

People depend on agriculture not only for sustenance but also to produce fiber, feed, fuel, and biofeedstock derivatives for critical manufacturing, says McEntire: “Investing here produces benefits for society at a very competitive price relative to engineered solutions for carbon capture. Programs like ‘Regenerative Food Systems: Scaling Impact from Soil to Shelf’ are crucial for convening leaders in food, farming, and finance to discuss these powerful—and underutilized—climate solutions.”

“Awareness of regeneration has grown from 4% to 7% in just 18 months—a clear sign of momentum, yet reaching the Tipping Point requires collective action. Partnerships are essential to scaling regenerative solutions that restore healthy soil and nurture both human and planetary health,” says Evan Harrison, CEO of Kiss the Ground. “We’re excited to join Food Tank and Arva at Climate Week NYC to share insights and amplify impact from soil to shelf.”

“Regenerative school meals are more than a menu tweak: it is a market unlock for farming that restores soil health, water, and biodiversity, while nourishing children and sustaining farmers,” says Sara Farley, Vice President of The Rockefeller Foundation’s global food team. “Rooted in Indigenous know-how, regeneratively produced food can turn the world’s biggest safety net—school meals—into a lever for climate resilience, feeding pupils today, and safeguarding the planet for tomorrow.”

“The only way we are going to realize agriculture’s promise to help combat climate change is if we have enough farmers who can make a living while following regenerative practices,” says John Piotti, CEO of American Farmland Trust. “We need to help existing farmers who are doing the right things stay in business and make it financially possible for forward-looking new farmers to get into the business.”

“Food systems are only as strong as the trust and transparency behind them. That’s why traceability and data standards matter—they’re the foundation that allows food to move fairly, safely, and sustainably across the globe,” says Mark Kaplan, Co-Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer at Wholechain. “At Digital Futures: A Better Food Celebration, we’ll show how these global standards come alive—from seafood to beef to leather—and why they’re essential for the future of food.”

“The Sustainable Foods Showcase is a catalyst for connection across the food and agriculture ecosystem. We’re bringing together visionary founders, investors, and industry leaders from all corners of the industry to feel, taste, and see these next-generation products up close,” says Eric Cohen, Head of Green Economy Banking at J.P. Morgan. “Events like these highlight the power of collaboration in building a more sustainable food system while creating new market opportunities.”

Food Tank’s Summits will also cover the intersection of food, health, hunger, and climate—and how cross-sector participation is crucial.

“[The Food is Medicine and Eating for Health] summit is about connecting the dots between food, health, and wellness,” says Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. “It brings together diverse perspectives to deepen that conversation and inspire new ideas. We hope attendees leave with a stronger sense of how food can truly serve as medicine and how each of us can play a role in building healthier communities.”

“With over 300 million people facing severe hunger, it’s critical that the humanitarian sector invest in food security solutions that mitigate climate risks and save lives,” says Barron Segar, President and CEO of World Food Program USA. “From low-tech solutions like home-grown school meals to advanced predictive technologies and logistics, we’re working with communities and private-sector partners to build resilience and lasting change.”

“Chefs are on the frontlines of climate every day, sourcing from farmers, shaping what diners eat, and influencing how communities understand food. Their voices carry far beyond the plate,” says Anne E. McBride, PhD, Vice President of Impact at the James Beard Foundation. “That’s why bringing chefs into the climate conversation isn’t optional. It’s essential if we want real solutions that resonate with both policymakers and the public.”

Finally, Food Tank’s Climate Week NYC Summits are about joy, celebration, and hope. Musical and theatre performances and tastings will be hosted alongside live discussions to emphasize the importance of celebrating progress and fueling optimism in the face of climate challenges.

“At Journey Foods, we believe solving today’s food and climate challenges requires more than technology. It requires joy, collaboration, and the cross-pollination of ideas. Digital Futures is designed as a night of dance and discovery where leaders, innovators, artists, and creatives come together to celebrate progress and accelerate solutions in today’s digital landscape. My hope is that attendees leave feeling energized, connected, and inspired to act faster and more creatively for a more delicious food future,” says Riana Lynn, Founder and CEO of Journey Foods.

“Climate Week can feel like a tidal wave—from packed schedules to the sheer scale of the climate crisis. But there’s a powerful reason to keep going: hope,” says Brita Lundberg, Fourth-Generation Farmer and Chief Storyteller at Lundberg Family Farms. “At Hope on a Plate, we’re putting hope center stage with personal stories from farmers, inspiring musical performances, chef-led tastings, and real conversations with changemakers driving the regenerative organic movement.”

“As we kick off Climate Week, we know we are at a tipping point. The climate crisis is no longer abstract—it’s here. Yet so is an opportunity: to lead with culture, with care, and with collective vision,” says Tonya Allen, President and CEO of the McKnight Foundation. “This is where performing artists and cultural bearers play a vital role. They give us language to express our grief, fear, and curiosity. They remind us that joy and justice go together. They invite us into spaces of imagining that a different world and a different way is possible, and that in some places, it’s already taking shape.”

“The climate crisis can feel overwhelming, but ‘The Performing Arts Lights the Way’ shows the power of creativity and collaboration to spark change,” says Molly Braverman, Director of the Broadway Green Alliance. “We are thrilled to join forces with Food Tank and the McKnight Foundation to harness the joy of the arts, uplift solutions, and leave attendees inspired, connected, and ready to carry the momentum of Climate Week forward.”

The week concludes with “A Night Honoring Our Farmers: Food and Agriculture Storytelling,” a special presentation by 10 extraordinary farmers sharing experiences of land, legacy, hope, and resilience through theater-inspired storytelling and unscripted narratives.

“As a theater-maker, I’m sold on the power of storytelling, but to be hearing from voices we never hear from—farmers doing vital work to ensure we’ll be able to feed our grandchildren—well, that’s going to make for storytelling flavored with a special sauce of compelling importance and captivating entertainment,” says Anika Larsen, Tony Award Nominee and Broadway Green Alliance Board Member. “And at the Broadway Green Alliance, we know that when stories like these are lifted up, they don’t just entertain—they inspire action for a more sustainable future.”

Ron Mardesen, a third-generation hog farmer from Elliott, Iowa, who has raised pigs for specialty meat company Niman Ranch for over 20 years, emphasizes the weight of each farmer’s story—and why it’s important to listen.

“When a farmer shares a story, their story is wrapped in life. The listener feels the struggles of the farmer. The listener hears the emotion in the farmer’s voice. And ultimately, the listener sees the vision that has moved the farmer to where they are right now,” says Mardesen. “When a farmer shares a story, their story, they are exposing a part of themselves that most of us are uncomfortable to do. It’s hard to bear it all. We’ve all had successes, and we’ve all had failures. But the bottom line is we’ve all learned from our experiences.”

The post Join Food Tank at Climate Week NYC 2025: 300+ Leaders, Farmers, and Chefs Unite to Tackle the Climate Crisis Through Food appeared first on Food Tank.

“This summit is about connecting the dots between food, health, and wellness,” says Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. “It brings together diverse perspectives to deepen that conversation and inspire new ideas. We hope attendees leave with a stronger sense of how food can truly serve as medicine and how each of us can play a role in building healthier communities.”

Panel discussions will examine how food and nutrition interventions are transforming health outcomes and creating more just and resilient food systems, with topics such as “Nutrition Across Adolescence.”

The summit will be held in the Greene Space at WNYC-NPR Studios, featuring lunch at 1:30pm, programming from 2pm to 4:30pm, and a reception until 5:30pm.

Confirmed speakers include: U.S. Congressman Daniel S. Goldman; Grace Young, James Beard Award-Winning Cookbook Author, Food Historian, and Chinatown Advocate; Tutu Badaru, Assistant Director of Food Access Initiatives & Partnerships, GrowNYC; Nancy Easton, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Wellness in the Schools; Jilly Stephens, Chief Executive Officer, City Harvest; Leslie Gordon, President & CEO, Food Bank For New York City; Robert Graham, Co-Founder, FRESH Med; Tanya Fields, Executive Director, The Black Feminist Project; Kathleen Finlay, President, Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming; Christine Going, Senior Advisor, Food Security Program Office within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; Shanon Morris, Chief of Programs, Harlem Grown; A-dae Romero-Briones, Vice President, Native Agriculture & Food Systems, First Nations Development Institute; Charles Platkin, Executive Director, Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity, Co-Founder and Director, MedicalBx; Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark, Director, Integrative Nutrition and Advocacy, Endeavor Health, Co-Director, Culinary Medicine, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago; Stacey Vanek Smith, Senior Story Editor and Co-Host “Everybody’s Business” Podcast, Bloomberg; and Dana Cowin, an award-winning journalist and former Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine and founder of Progressive Hedonist.

“Food is Medicine and Eating for Health” will also feature a special musical performance from Racquel Williams, currently appearing on Broadway in The Book of Mormon, accompanied by Maria Caputo, a versatile pianist, composer, and music director. This summit will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube Channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank’s full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2025.

Photo courtesy of Nick Fewings, Unsplash

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The conversations will focus on unlocking the power of regenerative agriculture and equitable food policies to transform how we nourish communities while protecting the planet. In particular, speakers will explore how regenerative school meals can trigger positive impact across the food value chain, from farmer to eater.

“Regenerative school meals are more than a menu tweak: it is a market unlock for farming that restores soil health, water, and biodiversity, while nourishing children and sustaining farmers,” says Sara Farley, Vice President of The Rockefeller Foundation’s global food team. “Rooted in Indigenous know-how, regeneratively produced food can turn the world’s biggest safety net—school meals—into a lever for climate resilience, feeding pupils today, and safeguarding the planet for tomorrow.”

Held in the Greene Space at WNYC-NPR Studios, the event will begin with breakfast at 9am, followed by programming from 9:30am to 12pm, and a networking lunch from 12pm to 1pm. 

Confirmed speakers include Adam Met, multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated musician with AJR and Founder of Planet Reimagined; Paul Polman, the former CEO of Unilever and co-author of Net Positive, known for championing sustainable and inclusive business practices; Eitan Bernath, 23-year-old chef, author, and social media star with millions of followers and billions of views, serves as a High-Level Supporter for the United Nations World Food Programme, inspiring young people worldwide to fight hunger; Deena Shanker, Journalist, Bloomberg; Sara Farley, Vice President, Global Food Portfolio, The Rockefeller Foundation; Aulo Gelli, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); Carmen Burbano de Lara, Director, School-Based Programmes, World Food Programme; Appolinaire Djikeng, Director General, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); Jennifer Burney, Professor of Environmental Social Sciences & Earth System Science, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; Isabelle Kamariza, Founder & President, Solid’Africa, Rwanda; Gerardo Martinez, Founder and Owner, Wild Kid Acres in Edgewater, Maryland; Kate Mackenzie, Executive Director, Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, New York City; Will Brikerhoff, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan studying crop-livestock integration and agroecology; Emily Weedon Chapman, Senior Social Protection Specialist / Human Development Economist, Social Protection & Jobs Global Practice, World Bank; and Sweta Chakraborty, behavioral scientist and U.S. President of We Don’t Have Time. 

“Nourishing People, Planet, and Our Future” will also feature a special musical performance by Cajai Kennedy, a Broadway dancer and actress currently appearing in Wicked, who began her professional career at age 10 in The Lion King national tour and previously performed in Frozen on Broadway. Cajai will be accompanied by Elijah Caldwell, OBIE Award–winning pianist, vocalist, and multifaceted artist based in New York City, featured in the Pulitzer Prize– and Drama Desk Award–winning musical A Strange Loop.  

This summit will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube Channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank’s full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2025.

Photo courtesy of CIP – International Potato Center

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The New York Times first obtained the draft of the Strategy report, which has not been confirmed by the White House and will go through revisions before finalization. It was initially expected to be publicly released on August 12, 2025, the date of the deadline for submission to the President. But the White House delayed publication, citing the need to coordinate officials’ schedules.

The new Strategy from the Commission—chaired by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—will build on the Commission’s first publication, an Assessment released in May. The Assessment identified four main drivers of childhood chronic disease: poor diet, chemical exposure, lack of physical activity and chronic stress, and overmedicalization.

On issues such as poor diets and pesticides, the draft expands on the original report, emphasizing additional research, improved public education, and voluntary industry action. But it offers few new recommended restrictions. “This report has one overriding implied message,” Marion Nestle says of the draft. “More research needed.”

To address poor diet, one of the Assessment’s four key drivers of childhood chronic disease, the draft emphasizes research and education. It calls for studies on sleep and nutrition, the impact of food and lifestyle interventions, and how additives affect individuals.

It recommends expanding access to nutrition information, launching campaigns tied to updated dietary guidelines, and encouraging community-level interventions, such as pediatric care teams working with parents and students on healthy eating.

Both the Assessment and draft Strategy identify processed foods as a major contributor to poor diet, but the draft mentions them only once, in reference to defining the term ultra-processed foods. The New York Times notes this omission raises questions about the administration’s willingness to regulate, a step the food industry strongly opposes.

The draft endorses the prioritization of whole, healthy foods in federal programs, proposing measures like promoting full-fat dairy in schools and distributing MAHA boxes of healthy food through SNAP. But many of these programs have faced recent funding cuts, and Nestle describes a similar food box initiative under the first Trump administration as a disaster for small farmers.

If left unchanged, the draft’s language on pesticides and chemical additives will mark a win for the agriculture industry and a setback for Kennedy, MAHA supporters, and the health of the American people, according to Kari Hamerschlag, the Deputy Director of the Food and Agriculture Program at Friends of the Earth.

The Commission’s first report identified common ingredients such as glyphosate as threats to children’s health, prompting 500 people to send a letter calling for a ban on the additive. But industrial farmers and agricultural groups pushed back. Hundreds of organizations urged the Commission to rely on sound science rather than outlier studies and warned that the Assessment report contained numerous errors that fueled unfounded fears about food safety.

Since then, industry groups have lobbied heavily to shape the draft Strategy, and the National Corn Growers Association said it has spent months raising alarms about the Commission’s focus on herbicides. EPA Deputy Administrator Nancy Beck said the agency will continue to deem glyphosate safe “until the weight of scientific evidence shifts.”

But the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as a “probable human carcinogen,” and Friends of the Earth has reported thousands of lawsuits linking it to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The draft, which does not specifically mention glyphosate, contains no recommendations to restructure federal oversight of pesticides. Instead, the document suggests publicizing existing EPA review processes, which the document calls “robust,” to ensure confidence.

To reduce pesticide usage, the draft suggests implementing programs to help growers adopt precision agricultural techniques and conducting research demonstrating how these technologies can help to decrease pesticide use. It also calls for new research to address cumulative exposure to chemicals, including pesticides.

The final draft of the MAHA Commission’s Strategy Report is forthcoming and, according to three people familiar with the matter, will be publicly launched by the end of August.

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Photo courtesy of The White House, Wikimedia

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MAHA Commission Releases Report

The Trump-Vance Administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., released their first report identifying the key contributors to rising rates of chronic disease among American children.

The Commission describes a worsening public health crisis among children, citing increasing rates of obesity, diabetes, neurodevelopmental disorders, cancer, mental health conditions, allergies, and autoimmune diseases. “Today’s children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease,” the report states.

According to the Commission, the four major contributors to these trends are poor diet, chemical exposure, technology overuse, and excessive medical intervention.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, the Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University praised the report for its focus on the harms of ultra-processed foods but he expressed disappointment that it did not address other serious shortcomings in the American diet.

Several current and former federal health officials also raised concerns, telling CBS News that the report misrepresented key facts and omitted widely recognized drivers of childhood chronic disease—many of which are already the focus of public health efforts.

Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, said the report “did a phenomenal job” highlighting the dangers of UPFs but questioned how the administration will fix the problems that are articulated in the report. Federal agencies and programs, including those relevant to food, health and nutrition, have seen mass layoffs and substantial funding cuts as part of a broader Trump administration effort to downsize the federal workforce.

USDA Ends School Meal Support for Hundreds of Thousands of Children

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is terminating 17 projects under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, ending school meal programs for hundreds of thousands of children in low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe

The McGovern-Dole Program was created to reduce hunger and improve literacy for young children, especially girls. Through organizations including the World Food Programme and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the program provides U.S. agricultural commodities, funding, and technical assistance to support child nutrition, maternal health, and access to quality education. The USDA has canceled 11 out of CRS’s 13 programs, leaving over 780,000 children across 11 countries without their school meal.

U.S. international food assistance programs, including McGovern-Dole, are structured not only to address global hunger but also to create demand for American agricultural products—bolstering U.S. trade and helping farmers tap into global markets.

The move comes just weeks after the White House released its fiscal 2026 spending plan, in which it proposed eliminating the McGovern-Dole program entirely. The White House argued in its latest spending proposal that although the McGovern-Dole program supports U.S. farmers, it is an inefficient use of federal dollars given “the high transportation costs and large portion of funding provided for technical assistance.”

In addition, 27 projects were canceled last week under USDA’s Food for Progress aid program, which sends U.S. commodities abroad for economic development.

Europe’s Crops at Risk Amid Record-Breaking Spring Drought

Large parts Europe are facing what may be the driest spring in a century. Triggered by warmer-than-average temperatures and record-low rainfall, the intensifying drought is threatening crops during a key phase of growth.

“It’s a critical time,” says Dutch farmer Hendrik Jan ten Cate, noting that crops planted in April now need water every week. However, the rainfall deficit has been building up since March and continues to deteriorate quickly. By early May, nearly a third of Europe was under drought warnings, with some regions on red alert, according to the European Drought Observatory.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that worsening heat and drought could lead to “substantive agricultural production losses” for most European areas this century.

Extreme weather costs EU agriculture more than EUR€28 billion (about USD$31.7 billion) annually—over half of it from drought, according to an analysis backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission. Between 70 and 80 percent of these losses are uninsured.

“Climate-related risks are an increasing source of uncertainty for food production,” said EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti, calling for expanded insurance and de-risking tools to help stabilize farm investments in a volatile climate. Farmers across Europe say they are exploring ways to adapt to drought but, in the short term, see little choice but to wait for more rain.

New Mexico Advances Heat Safety Standards for Outdoor Workers

As temperature rise statewide, New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau is proposing new workplace heat protections.

According to the state’s Environment Department, heat is a leading cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S., and the southwest, including New Mexico, is among the fastest warming regions of the country. The New Mexico Department of Health reported there were over 800 heat-related emergency room visits last year. And Las Cruces, a city in southern New Mexico, experienced their hottest summer on record in 2024.

The rule, currently under public review, would mandate rest breaks, shaded recovery areas, clean water access, and acclimatization protocols for workers in high-heat conditions.

The federal Occupational Health and Safety Bureau began developing national heat safety standards for workplaces in 2021, but the Trump administration has indefinitely paused the process.

With no federal heat standard in place, New Mexico would join six other states—Maryland, California, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington—in adopting statewide heat protections if the rule is finalized.

A public hearing is scheduled for July, with implementation expected in August if approved.

PepsiCo Scales Back Climate Goals

PepsiCo has revised its sustainability strategy, scaling back or extending several climate, packaging, agriculture, and water targets.

The company dropped its previous goal of cutting total emissions by over 40 percent by 2030 and extended its net-zero target from 2040 to 2050. It now aims to sustainably source 90 percent of its key ingredients by 2030, down from 100 percent, and to achieve average—rather than “best-in-class”—water-use efficiency. PepsiCo also discontinued its commitment to reducing reliance on single-use packaging through reusable models. At the same time, it expanded its regenerative agriculture goal to 10 million acres by 2030, up from 7 million, with 3.5 million acres reached to date.

PepsiCo says the revised targets reflect external constraints, such as limited recycling and reuse infrastructure, and a clearer understanding of where the company can accelerate impact and improve returns on investment.

The company had signaled difficulties prior to this year. In its 2023 sustainability report, released in June 2024, PepsiCo acknowledged that it was unlikely to meet certain goals.

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Photo courtesy of Keagan Henman, Unsplash

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MCURC is a global collaboration of more than 80 colleges and universities, foodservice companies, and research collaborators advancing plant-forward diets and reducing food waste in campus dining. During a 12-week research sprint, MCURC chefs at 9 university dining halls developed and implemented recipes with repurposed ingredients. MCURC teamed up with ReFED, a food waste nonprofit in the United States, to track and analyze the data.

Sara Burnett, Executive Director of ReFED, tells Food Tank that when it comes to reducing food waste, prevention should always come first. But, she says, “We can’t prevent all the waste. We’re not able to predict exactly how much to produce all the time. Repurposing is the next step on that journey…It is a way to get through all that volatility that naturally happens in foodservice.”

According to ReFED, the U.S. generated 73.9 million tons of surplus food in 2023. The foodservice sector produced 17.2 percent of that—about 13 million tons.

The MCURC chefs were tasked with designing and implementing one or two repurposed recipes. Over the course of the research sprint, they tracked metrics including cost and pre-consumer food waste.

“Our goal was really to look at how chefs’ creativity could be utilized as a food waste solution,” Abby Fammartino, Co-Director of MCURC, tells Food Tank. “We wanted to know, how does repurposing as a food waste solution impact an operation, quantitatively and qualitatively?”

“When we started a lot of this [research], the concern, or the hesitancy within leadership in our division was, is that going to be possible? That sounds like a lot,” Brian Cochrane, Head Chef at Vanderbilt University and a participant in the research sprint tells Food Tank.

Cochrane thought they might encounter staff resistance to repurposing food. “We thought the chef would have to use a lot more of their own energy,” says Cochrane. But he continues, “What we learned was actually the antithesis of what we anticipated.”

Cochrane’s kitchen started by developing a broccoli slaw recipe using repurposed broccoli stems. Cochrane says, “The cooks assistants, our prep cooks, you know, they got excited. They got invigorated…they started saving everything…they became part of that energy.”

Fammartino notes that they observed increased staff excitement and engagement across institutions. “That was the biggest takeaway that we heard… that it was very fun for the teams and inspiring, motivating for the chefs to work on this challenge.”

Repurposing also delivered quantitative savings, ReFED’s data show. The Repurpose with a Purpose Operational Toolkit distills the research findings into cost-effective, plant-forward strategies for repurposing food.

“In just one calendar month, across those nine universities, they saved about US$20,000 in food costs, which equated to 21,000 gallons of water and 545,000 tons of carbon emissions,” reports Burnett. And, she adds, “you did all that while making your employees more engaged and excited about going to work.”

Fammartino emphasizes that these savings were realized with just one or two recipe substitutions at each of the nine participating colleges. “You can extrapolate that if you’re doing more than more than just two recipes, using repurposing to sort of guide the way you’re leading your operation, then there can be even more savings.”

In Cochrane’s kitchen, creative repurposing has become a cornerstone of their operation, the chef says. Since the research sprint, his team has developed a repurposed sorghum grain salad with dressing made from aquafaba—the liquid in chickpea cans. They have also repurposed fruit pulp into curds and cobblers.

Cochrane thinks that recipes like these, some of which are included in the Toolkit, will be useful for chefs at other dining halls and institutions.

“An operation like ours is fluid, it’s non-stop, and we need something turnkey. Those recipes are so valuable to us to be able to just say, like, here, it’s easy, do this,” says Cochrane.

And students are enjoying the recipes. Cochrane tells Food Tank that the dining hall that participated in the repurposing challenge—one of several at Vanderbilt—“has actually become the most popular residential college dining hall on campus.”

MCURC and ReFED are now working to disseminate the Toolkit, which they hope will provide actionable steps for organizations that want to create more sustainable menus.

“At the end of the day, every kitchen leader is really looking for win-win solutions,” says Burnett. “And repurposing is just that…It’s really that kind of triple bottom line win that everybody’s looking for.”

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Photo courtesy of Dieny Portinanni, Unsplash 

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The event will bring together renowned Food is Medicine thought leaders, medical professionals, chefs, and more for dynamic moderated conversations that will look at solutions that cultivate nourished, resilient communities.

These interventions include hands-on programs that engage and empower students because “when we look at healthy habits, we know that they’re formed at a young age,” says Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. Experts will also explore policies and initiatives that expand access to foods that are healthy and culturally relevant. 

Speakers include (in alphabetical order): Erika Allen, Urban Growers Collective; Dr. Kofi Essel, Elevance Health; Rachel Fisher, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Katie Garfield, Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School; Devon Klatell, The Rockefeller Foundation; Kathleen Merrigan, Arizona State University Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems; Radha Muthiah, Capital Area Food Bank; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; A-dae Romero-Briones, First Nations Development Institute; Chef Sean Sherman, Owamni and North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS); Tambra Raye Stevenson, WANDA; Chef Alice Waters, restaurateur, food writer, and author; and Lyndsey Waugh, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.

Both days are free to attend, but registration is required. Learn more and register now for one or both days of the webinar by clicking HERE. 

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Photo courtesy of USDA

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The Texas Sprouts study included over 3,000 elementary school aged students and measured the impact of incorporating gardening, cooking, and nutrition lessons into schools. The year-long program led to a modest yet significant increase in vegetable consumption among children in predominantly Hispanic, low-income communities, where access to fresh produce is limited and childhood obesity rates are higher than average.

Lead researcher Jaimie Davis tells Food Tank that having a garden program at school “gets kids interested in growing their own food and where their food comes from, and…empowers the child to be a champion of change in the house.”

The Texas Sprouts program was introduced in eight of the 16 participating schools, combining classroom lessons, cooking workshops, and the creation of 0.25-acre teaching gardens. The remaining schools served as a control group for the study and received the program the following year.

Each school formed a Garden Leadership Committee of teachers, parents, students, and community members to oversee the gardens and ensure they became an integral part of school culture. According to Davis, the idea is that “kids that grow their own food and cook with their own foods are much more likely to be willing to try it.”

Over nine months, students participated in 18 interactive gardening, cooking, and nutrition lessons. Parents also had access to monthly workshops to foster a culture of health at home but despite incentives like free babysitting, meals, and produce giveaways, only 7 percent of parents attended at least one workshop. In the future, Davis hopes virtual lessons will make attendance more accessible. 

The program significantly increased the number of vegetables kids were eating, but researchers saw no measurable changes in obesity-related markers such as body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, or blood pressure during the study period. According to Davis, however, a longer intervention period may be necessary to produce measurable health outcomes. 

The study also highlights the barriers to achieving broader health outcomes through nutrition education. According to the researchers, limited access to affordable fresh foods can undermine dietary improvements made at school in communities where food insecurity is prevalent. 

School gardens may be the only consistent source of fresh produce for some students, but studies show that the exposure can encourage students to share the activity with their families. “Our Texas Sprouts program did result in increased gardening at home,” Davis explains, “so while the yield at the school may not be a ton, if they are also growing things at home the combination of those two might be a little bit more meaningful.” 

To sustain and scale these school gardening programs, the researchers emphasize that systemic support, including funding for garden-based education, professional development for teachers, and improved access to affordable fresh produce, is essential. They believe that policymakers have an opportunity to leverage school gardens as a practical tool for nutrition education and combating diet-related health disparities in underserved communities. “We still have a long way to go in making sure that all homes have access…to healthy foods,” Davis tells Food Tank.

The authors also hope that the findings can pave the way for further research on the long-term effects of school gardening programs. Future studies can explore additional health markers like blood glucose levels and how these programs influence psychosocial factors tied to diet and health. As Davis explains, the goal is “planting the seed of behavior change,” highlighting how these programs aim to foster lasting positive impacts on students’ eating habits and overall health.

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Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

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1. A Call to Farms: Reconnecting to Nature, Food, and Community in a Modern World by Jennifer Grayson (Forthcoming July 9, 2024)

Investigative journalist Jennifer Grayson writes an eye-opening account that details the challenges new farmers will face in an era of climate change and food inequality. As part of her research, Grayson immersed herself in a farmer training program, where she met farmers and food activists, and she profiles them throughout the book. A Call to Farms documents the regenerative, sustainable practices emerging farmers are committed to using to help reverse climate degradation and inequity.

2. Barefoot Biodynamics: How Cows, Compost, and Community Help Us Understand Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course by Jeff Poppen

In Barefoot Biodynamics, Jeff Poppen integrates stories from his time in rural Tennessee in his guide to biodynamic principles and practices. Poppen reflects on the influential teachings of scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, offering some of Steiner’s concepts in readable, engaging language. Poppen’s work will appeal to those who are just beginning to think about biodynamics, as well as experienced farmers and gardeners seeking new insight.

3. Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-Mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food by Michelle T. King

Chop Fry Watch Learn shares the history of modern Chinese food through the story of Fu Pei-Mei, the woman credited with introducing the world to Chinese cooking. Historian Michelle T. King weaves together anecdotes from her own life, historical phenomena, and stories of shifting international relations. King explains how Fu became a critical culinary figure and how her influence continues to span borders and generations.

4. Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them by Tim Lang

Tim Lang writes a detailed account of the United Kingdom food system, explaining its strengths, weaknesses, and human and environmental impacts. He investigates how UK food culture has grown fragmented, relying on both ultra-processed and diverse, high-quality foods. Feeding Britain argues that, although it will take time, transforming the UK food system is in the public interest and is a process that must begin now.

5. Food Margins: Lessons From an Unlikely Grocer by Cathy Stanton

In Food Margins, anthropologist Cathy Stanton delves into her own journey to help save a small food co-op in western Massachusetts. Rooted in her own experience working to keep this co-op open, Stanton explores the challenges that small businesses face in the shadow of giant corporations and the deep racial and class inequities that compound such struggles. The story of the co-op and Stanton’s efforts is rooted in the understanding that this tale is just one of many in a time when food systems are growing increasingly inequitable and unsustainable.

6. Food Systems of the Future by Scientific American Editors

Food Systems of the Future explores new, innovative, and sometimes controversial methods to ensure a sustainable food system in the face of climate change. The book discusses topics such as processed food, genetically modified crops, and the journey to discover and create foods with minimal environmental impact. As the human population continues to rise and the food system remains under threat, Food Systems of the Future provides practical and hopeful insights.

7. Food Systems Transformation in Kenya: Lessons from the Past and Policy Options for the Future by Clemens Breisinger, Michael Keenan, Juneweenex Mbuthia, and Jemimah Njuki

Food Systems Transformation in Kenya provides accounts of Kenya’s past and present food system, with insights from Kenyan and international experts representing a range of disciplines. The authors offer an in-depth analysis, with evidence-backed sections discussing the sustainability and health implications of the food system as it stands today. They also provide specific policy recommendations for the future and discuss how Kenya could serve as a role model to other nations in food systems-led transformation.

8. Forage. Gather. Feast. by Maria Finn

Maria Finn’s cookbook features recipes with forge-able foods, specifically those that can be foraged in diverse landscapes across the West Coast of the United States With beautiful food photography and over 100 recipes, Forage. Gather. Feast. will allow West Coast inhabitants to find food inspiration all over their natural environment. Recipes include Fire-Roasted Butter Claims with Seaweed Gremolata and Spruce Tip and Juniper Berry Sockeye Salmon Gravlax.

9. Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley

Frostbite is an engaging exploration of refrigeration, describing how artificial refrigeration spurred a new era in human nutrition. Nicola Twilley discusses the arguable benefits of refrigeration, including access to season- and region-defying produce, as well as its drawbacks. She explains that the U.S. food system as it exists today would not be possible without refrigeration and it has distorted our relationship with food. As countries across the globe rush to build large refrigeration networks, Twilley urges readers to understand its costs.

10. How to Create a Sustainable Food Industry: A Practical Guide to Perfect Food by Melissa Barrett, Massimo Marino, Francesca Brkic, and Carlo Alberto Pratesi

How to Create a Sustainable Food Industry will help readers understand sustainability as it relates to the food and agriculture industries. This guide explains the sustainability of specific food products and demonstrates how a business can successfully communicate their practices to customers. Using real-world examples, this book debunks myths surrounding the food system and provides practical advice for working toward more sustainable processes.

11. Into the Weeds: How to Garden Like a Forager by Tama Matsuoka Wong

Skilled gardener and forager Tama Matsuoka Wong educates and inspires in Into the Weeds, encouraging readers to approach gardening with openness and adaptability. Wong explains that gardening does not need to be complicated or elaborate, it can be simple, and beauty can be found everywhere.  Through a plant ID guide, recipes with foragable ingredients, and instructions to build simple structures and beautiful crafts, Into the Weeds teaches readers practical skills while also motivating them to rethink their relationship to gardening.

12. Living with the Trees of Life: A Practical Guide to Rebooting the Planet through Tropical Agriculture and Putting Farmers First by Roger Leakey

In Living with the Trees of Life, Roger Leakey draws upon his extensive experience in agriculture and forestry to present a practical path forward in a world facing climate change, deforestation, and social injustice. Leakey focuses on the tropics and subtropics, tracing many existential problems in those regions to the breakdown of agriculture systems. He explores how cultivating indigenous trees and investing in new, modified tree crops can produce food, medicine, money, and jobs.

13. The Self-Sufficiency Garden: Feed Your Family and Save Money by Huw Richards and Sam Cooper

The Self-Sufficiency Garden is a comprehensive guide to cultivating a garden that can nourish a family. The book shows readers how they can grow enough for five portions of vegetables a day for four people, spending an average of four hours in the garden per week. In addition to detailing how to create and set up the garden, Huw Richards and Sam Cooper provide a month-by-month guide for the growing year, as well as a myriad of ways to make use of this produce in the kitchen.

14. Transforming School Food Politics around the World edited by Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Roberts

In Transforming School Food Politics around the World, editors Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Roberts craft a collection of essays that feature people across the globe who have advocated for public school food programs that advance education, health, justice, food sovereignty, and sustainability. Young people, mothers, teachers, farmers, and policymakers share their stories, demonstrating the crucial role that school food programs play in caring for and educating children.

15. Permaculture Gardening for the Absolute Beginner: Follow Nature’s Map to Grow Your Own Organic Farm with Confidence and Transform Any Backyard into a Thriving Ecosystem by Josie Beckham

Permaculture Gardening for the Absolute Beginner is a comprehensive guide to permaculture, detailing the principles of permaculture, instructions for creating garden beds, how to integrate animal life, food preservation strategies, and much more. Josie Beckham’s insights will be transformative for anyone seeking to start a permaculture garden, from those who have never planted a seed to experienced gardeners.

16. Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape by Henry Dimbleby

Ravenous dives into the destructive nature of the food system, explaining how it has grown into one of the most harmful industries in the world. Henry Dimbleby explores how destructive, behind-the-scenes forces operate in the food system, destroying both the environment and human health. In addition to illuminating the damaging nature of the food system, Ravenous explains what can be done to mitigate these issues and work toward a more sustainable future.

17. Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho

In this food memoir, Grace M. Cho details her upbringing in a xenophobic small town as the daughter of a Korean bar hostess and white American merchant during the Cold War. Cho’s life changed when her mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, and she combed through recipes, past family events, and global history, attempting to uncover the roots of her mother’s condition. Tastes Like War documents Cho’s revelations as she cooked meals from her mother’s childhood and shared conversations and meals with her aging mother.

18. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh

The Nutmeg’s Curse traces the roots of the current climate crisis to Western colonialism and its joint exploitation of people and the natural environment. Amitav Ghosh tells the story of nutmeg as a parable for the inseparable relationship between humans and the Earth and the colonial perspective that has ultimately led to the crisis people are facing today. Through essays exploring historical events, contemporary inequities, and the threads that follow the past through the present, Ghosh presents a compelling, sharp critique of Western society.

19. Why I Cook by Tom Colicchio (Forthcoming October 31st, 2024)

Why I Cook provides readers with an unparalleled look into the life and history of Tom Colicchio, award-winning chef and television personality. This memoir details Colicchio’s journey from a child in a working-class family in New Jersey to young chef in New York City to the celebrity that he is today. The book also includes heirloom recipes, current family favorite meals, and photos from Colicchio’s childhood.

20. Young Changemakers: Scaling Agroecology Using Video in Africa and India by Paul Van Mele, Savitri Mohapatra, Laura Tabet, and Blessings Fao

Young Changemakers is a collection of stories and insights from 42 young people across the continent of Africa and India who created farmer-to-farmer learning videos to promote agroecology in their respective communities. Detailing the backgrounds, challenges, and successes of each project, this publication demonstrates the immense positive impact of farmer-to-farmer education and the critical role of youth activism in these efforts.

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Organizations can submit projects which are at or beyond the pilot stage, serve youth under the age of 18, and fall into one of two focus areas: Indigenous food justice and nutrition education and school food.

“The Prize’s two program areas reflect the two of our three priority program areas…to further our mission to nourish and transform the lives of children facing adversity,” Alex Amouyel, President and CEO of the Newman’s Own Foundation tells Food Tank. “We are identifying programs that are poised to transform the food justice landscape, creating lasting change, and raising a generation of children who will carry on this work.”

Projects submitted to the Indigenous Food Justice category should address food justice for Indigenous children by supporting access to traditional, nutritious, and affordable foods and work to shift control of food resources to Indigenous communities to benefit children.

Applications to the Nutrition Education and School Food category should create healthier food ecosystems for young eaters by supporting food and nutrition education, shifting school policies and practices to increase access to healthy school meals. These projects should also further engage children in the process of growing and cooking healthy, culturally relevant foods.

Up to five applicants in each category will receive grants up to US$50,000 in 2024. Each winner will also have the opportunity to be awarded an additional grant of up to US$50,00 in 2025, and they may be eligible for additional funding in 2026 and beyond. Additionally, applicants who reach the finalist stage may be considered for a US$10,000 grant through the Foundation’s Community Choice Award.

Amouyel explains that the 10 grantees will also be part of a learning cohort and will join existing grantee partners of the Foundation. “Through this, they can learn best practices from peers, share challenges and solutions and work with policy makers on broader state and/or federal change.”

The Newman’s Own Foundation launched the Food Justice for Kids Prize to address food insecurity and associated adverse health outcomes including delayed development, chronic disease, and mental health challenges. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest data, almost 13 million children live in food insecure households.

“We envision the United States as a country where all children have access to nutritious, culturally relevant foods; learn about healthy foods and sustainable food systems; and have opportunities to grow, gather, and cook food and be nourished physically, emotionally, and spiritually,” Amouyel tells Food Tank.

The application period is now open and closes on June 11, 2024. Winners will be announced in September, 2024. Learn more about the grant and apply by clicking HERE.

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Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

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The program allows students to “apply [their knowledge] and take it out of the hypothetical realm,” Tyler Cox, Animal Science Professor at WWCC, tells Food Tank. “It’s like: Put your coat on, we’re going to go look at this right now.”

Utilizing the land right next to campus, the program manages 80 head of Red Angus cattle owned by a WWCC professor. Students gain experience in the livestock breeding process while also learning how to grow and tend to crops.

“Our region is our big advantage and the fact that we have these incredibly fertile soils and already a really strong agriculture community,” Robin Leventhal, the Culinary Arts Instructor at the Wine Country Culinary Institute (WCCI), tells Food Tank.

WWCC also offers a Culinary Arts degree, in which students are enrolled at WCCI, accredited by the American Culinary Federation. WCCI operates on the WWCC main campus in a state-of-the-art kitchen as well as a satellite commercial kitchen placed at the Center for Enology & Viticulture.

As agriculture students help grow food and handle livestock, culinary students have the chance to learn the costs and origins of the food they are cooking.

“Students are incredibly invested in what’s happening in production of food that they’re preparing and serving,” says Cox.

As a student-centered program, WCCI is designed to prepare students for the foodservice and hospitality industry. Professors aim to support the development of well-rounded and trained culinary professionals to enter the workforce with the necessary skills to be successful.

Beyond the classroom, internship opportunities help students further their careers, allowing them to gain new skills.

“This program offers another level or layer of the food industry that you wouldn’t get in a conventional culinary arts program and at a time where innovation is essential,” Leventhal tells Food Tank.

Hands-on training and internship opportunities in food production and culinary service and management help students further their careers, allowing them to gain new skills.

“This curriculum is so much more than teaching future chefs,” Leventhal tells Food Tank. “They learn where food comes from, the cost of waste, and how to be responsible stewards of the land.”

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Photo courtesy of  Alan James Raeder and Robin Leventhal

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The 72 chefs who work for Wellness in the Schools teach cafeteria workers culinary skills and children the importance of eating nutritiously. The WITS chefs also train OFNS chefs on how to execute newly developed recipes by New York City’s Inaugural Chef Council. Tasked with developing menu items for NYC schools, the Council includes prominent chefs from around the City.

The goal of the Chefs in Schools program is to “provide meals to NYC public school children that are scratch-cooked, plant-based, and culturally relevant, and to give OFNS cooks workforce development skills, such as mise en place, storage and organization, and batch cooking,” Alexina Cather, the Director of Policy and Special Programs at WITS, tells Food Tank. 

Over the next two years, the 72 WITS chefs will spend a total of one month at each of New York City’s 1,200 public schools. The chefs have already begun training cafeteria staff, sampling recipes with students, and teaching students how to make some of the lunch recipes in WITS’ Food Lab at their flagship schools. 

“Chefs, increasingly, are leaders in their communities…{bringing in a chef} elevates school meals and makes families and kids feel like someone is paying attention to their food and that they care,” Cather explains. 

According to Advocates for Children in New York, one in nine NYC students is experiencing homelessness. WITS is working to ensure that the free universal school meals every public school child in New York City has access to are nutritious. 

Cather says that “regardless of what neighborhood each student lives in… they should be coming to school knowing that they are going to have options, that they are going to have wholesome food that is nutritionally dense, every time they show up at school.”

WITS is also overcoming the challenges of encouraging kids to eat unfamiliar foods by meeting students and families where they are. Studies in the journal Appetite, have found that children are most likely to enjoy a new food after trying it eight or nine times, and once they make it themselves. But “if you are on SNAP benefits at home as a parent, you don’t have ten times for your kid to try a new food. Your food budget is so limited that you have to make sure that what you put on their plate they’re going to eat,” Cather tells Food Tank. 

That’s why WITS is taking action and encouraging students to try new foods by offering samples of new meals, where “the emphasis is just on trying it…and celebrating that because that is the biggest hurdle,” says Cather. Additionally, the organization’s culinary and nutrition classes (aka WITS Labs) allow students to cook the dish before it debuts on their menu, so when it does appear on their plates, students are excited to try it. 

As the WITS and the Mayor’s Office partnership rolls out, Cather is thinking about how to turn programs like Chefs in Schools from pilot into policy, offering schools, families, and communities more opportunities for accessing real and good food.

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At the organization’s new Far Rockaway educational campus, TFFJ is focused on expanding its reach. The campus hosts four co-located schools, including three high schools and a middle school. The campus recently received a U.S. Department of Education Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Grant (USDA UAIP), making it the first federally funded TFFJ project.

The site features a soil garden developed in collaboration with GrowNYC and strategically planned by the campus. This garden is designed to generate extra produce throughout the outdoor growing season.

“The Far Rockaways is an isolated area with really complicated metrics in regards to food access, transportation access, and secondary education opportunities,” TFFJ Chief Executive Officer and Founder Katherine Soll tells Food Tank. “The idea was to build a school based farm hub where students are able to change what they see fit within their own community.”

The project uses a place-making approach, connecting the farm hub to local community gardens and food pantry distribution. Their ultimate goal is to accelerate workforce opportunities, demonstrated through partnerships with the on-site school-based culinary program. Additionally, the project collaborates with the campus’ Career and Technical Education programs in Urban Agriculture and Culinary Arts.

The organization sees this progress in Far Rockaway as an exciting opportunity, allowing them to build on the successes they have seen across New York City. Through STEM classes, afterschool programming, and school-based internships, all TFFJ students learn how to build and run all aspects of a school-based farm. The students grow hydroponic produce inside their Title I schools– public schools that receive federal education program funding to support low-income students– all while assuming roles as educators, mentors, and advocates.

Each TFFJ farm grows up to 4,536 kilograms of food annually. Their impact extends to 19 schools and 7,900 students, totaling 20,412 kilograms of student-grown produce distributed per year. The fresh crops are offered in the school’s cafeterias and distributed free and affordably within local food desert communities.

TFFJ also relies on a wide network of organizations—including Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, East Brooklyn Mutual Aid, and Queens Defenders— to distribute the food they grow. The organization hopes to continue building on these relationships to expand workforce development and employment opportunities. Already offering paid internships to over 60 students and connecting with the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program, TFFJ hopes to enhance its career and technical education track.

“This year and moving forward we are building an extremely intentional workforce development program that is wrap-around. We are working to create more opportunities for students as they get older within our program to take on more responsibility and to connect them with more industry partners,” says Soll.

Even as the organization grows and adjusts to the needs of communities, TFFJ plans to continue centering the experiences of students— a commitment that TFFJ Senior Farmer-Educator Alyssa Gardner-Vazquez has witnessed for years.

“I grew up in the program. I met a community of people who were just like me and cared about plants and growing food,” Gardner-Vazquez, who was also an original TFFJ student, tells Food Tank, “And now [as an educator] I get into the real problems with the high schools and learn along with them.”

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Recently, I received a text. And it was a good one.

It was from Alice Waters.

She and I know each other, but I still get starstruck talking to my culinary heroines. At her restaurant Chez Panisse, she was instrumental in bringing the names and faces of California agriculture to the table. And now, with the Edible Schoolyard Project, she continues to boost the school gardens movement and food education.

She was part of an important generation of women like Julia Child and Cecilia Chiang who truly paved the way in what was—and remains, to some degree—a male-dominated fine dining restaurant landscape.

This week, Food Tank members had a special opportunity to chat with Alice Waters at our virtual member meeting. We’ll be having more of these unique members-only conversations with other food luminaries like Alice, so I hope you’ll join Food Tank so you can connect with us.

Here’s why I’m bringing this up: Something Alice so many of us are very passionate about is where our food comes from, especially in schools. How schools procure food shapes how they literally and metaphorically nourish the next generation.

This is a major driving force behind Chez Panisse, and it also motivates the Edible Schoolyard Project. Having gardens in schools helps kids and teachers learn in different ways—not only to better understand subjects like math, chemistry, and social studies, but also to grasp that food doesn’t just come from a grocery store.

As far as school gardens go, we’ve lost our way over the past 100 years: In 1906, according to the USDA, there were roughly 75,000 school gardens in the U.S. As of 2019, just over 12,000 schools have gardens. Growing our own food, I think, gives people of all ages a better appreciation and respect for how difficult but also enriching the process is.

“When we support the people who grow the food for the schools, it’s the biggest gift that we can give the next generation,” she told us during the conversation.

And even if we aren’t able to start gardens, supporting schools and other institutions that are taking food procurement seriously is a big deal. Through better procurement practices, Alice told us, we can empower farmers, support the land, and address the climate crisis.

Sadly, in many budget-strapped schools, nutrition and local sourcing often fall by the wayside. In 2021, the USDA measured nine criteria for school food procurement. Cost was #1—the highest priority consideration—and nutrition was #9. Many schools said they wanted to support local producers, but few had concrete plans in place to do so, and even fewer could actually afford it.

But this is starting to change. During Covid-19, we’ve seen that farm-to-school programs are vital lifelines for small producers, and policymakers are paying attention. In New York State, for example, legislators introduced a bill that would make New York the first state to implement a values-based approach to food purchasing. Food Tank has been covering the legislation HERE.

True change in school food procurement takes both advocacy, Alice Waters told Food Tank members this week, and also “cheerleading from the federal government, from the state governments.” It’s imperative to make sure good food policies are ingrained and enshrined in our local, state, and federal laws.

And alongside those efforts, institutions like schools don’t have to wait to make change. Local school boards can embrace food and gardening programs, like the curricula created by the Edible Schoolyard Project. The Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education also recently partnered with the University of California, Davis, to create a training center for K-12 educators and a research hub for regenerative ag leaders.

Because every little bit of education helps. Here in the U.S., our students receive about 8 hours of nutrition education a year, according to the CDC. That’s shamefully low, and too small to really be effective—you’d need between 40–50 hours to bring about behavioral change.

So I hope you’ll reach out not only to your local elected legislators but also to school boards and business leaders to encourage them to take food procurement seriously. And I hope, too, that you’ll join Food Tank HERE so you can connect directly with food luminaries like Alice Waters at our exclusive member meetings.

More from our chat with Alice is on this week’s episode of our podcast, Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg, so I hope you’ll listen HERE, and email me as always at danielle@foodtank.com with your thoughts and questions.

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Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture

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In 1995 chef Alice Waters launched the Edible Schoolyard Project, which uses school gardens, kitchens, and cafeterias to teach students about the values of food, nature, and community. Waters started the project with a single middle school in Berkeley, California, supported by a coalition of educators, families, farmers, cooks, and artists. Together, they worked with students to create a garden and kitchen classroom. 

Since the founding of the first Edible Schoolyard, the nonprofit has established thousands of gardens across the country. In these spaces, young people have the chance to deepen their relationship with food and develop new skills. “The foods that the kids cook really empowers them,” Waters tells Food Tank. “And they are changed by it.”

Each garden takes shape in a different way, but Waters believes that it doesn’t matter whether students are growing their food in an urban or rural setting, in pots or in the ground. “Really, you need to know it can be done,” she says. “Seeing is believing and we have only been seeing disaster right now. War and disaster. And we need to see people feeling empowered and growing their own food.”

Involving young people is only one piece of Waters’ vision. She believes that transformation of the world’s food and agriculture systems requires participation from everyone. “We need to learn about what it is to live in a democracy,” Waters tells Food Tank. “And a democracy means that everybody has something to contribute.”

Listen to the full conversation with Alice Waters on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear more about the power of eating in community, why the design of everything from gardens to kitchens matters, why Waters says that supporting farmers who grow food for schools is “the biggest gift that we can give the next generation.”

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Halal pertains to permissible ingredients such as specific cuts of meat that have been slaughtered according to Islamic law. Non-permissible, or haram products, include alcohol and pork.  “[Halal] is an institution and comprehensive quality management system with clear religious guidelines that have been practiced for centuries,” Asma Ahad, Director of Halal Market Development at the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) tells Food Tank. Currently, “there’s no governmental oversight, so there’s a lack of trust,” Ahad adds. She also says that “the observance of halal extends beyond meat.” IFANCA is a nonprofit based in Des Plaines, IL providing third-party halal oversight throughout the entire supply chain.

According to the 2022 Illinois Muslims Report, 94 percent of Muslims in Illinois observe halal guidelines, and Illinois has the largest per capita population of Muslims in the U.S. The report found that 39 percent of Muslim respondents with school-age children, along with 32 percent of students enrolled in college, lack access to halal food at their school. Chicago Sun Times reports that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are failing to meet the needs of Muslim students who observe halal. Ahad says that the limited access to halal foods in schools is largely due to a lack of awareness and prioritization, a lack of funding, and a lack of understanding about halal foods and guidelines. This impacts food security for students across all income levels.

At Sullivan High School in Chicago, IL, most students are immigrants or refugees and come from low-income households. During the 2021-22 academic year, 90 Muslim students at Sullivan participated in a student-led “Halal School Survey.” Of the students surveyed, 100 percent shared that halal is important to them. Over 80 percent said they “always or often feel hungry because there are no suitable halal food options at school.”

Joshua Zepeda, a Refugee Social Worker at Sullivan High School reports, “we have a huge population of Muslim students and almost no halal options.” According to Zepeda, the lack of options also affects students’ ability to participate in after school activities and tutoring. A 2019 report by Food Fuels Learning finds that this particularly impacts students who rely on free and reduced lunch programs.

Thankfully, community groups around the country are working to develop culturally relevant meal options. The National Farm to School Network (NFSN), for example, is working to provide meal options that are accessible to all students, regardless of background, through their Values-Aligned Universal School Meals program. The goal of the program is to promote equity – and racial equity explicitly – throughout the supply chain and when meeting student needs.

“There’s a huge need for certain communities to support the Muslim community that should encompass [Halal],” Trisha Bautista Larson, Program Manager, NFSN tells Food Tank. “The next [step] is [to address] the importance of meal patterns, especially as it’s created by the federal child nutrition program standards.” She says it’s important to recognize “the vital role of cultural and religious foodways that help kids feel respected and nourished.”

And in Maine, the Portland-based Cultivating Community and Cumberland County Food Security Council, launched a district-wide initiative to develop new menus that accommodate Muslim students. Muslim Chef, Khadija Ahmed co-developed the menus with Chef Samantha Cowens-Gasparro and helped lead a training on halal guidelines to educate foodservice staff involved in the project.

“The biggest takeaway for me from this project has been that culturally important menu items go beyond flavor,” Lily Chaleff, School Program Manager at Cultivating Community tells Food Tank. “And when we’re talking about something being culturally relevant and culturally inclusive, it does come down to culture. Not just the meal, not just the food, [but] what are the dietary restrictions? What are the customs and cultures?”

While menus that were taste tested at three Portland, ME high schools were met with enthusiasm from most students, the schools did not use halal meat in the recipes, making them inaccessible to many Muslim students, Chaleff says.

IFANCA is also working with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Chartwells Higher Ed, Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a training program and national halal guidelines for K-12 schools, colleges, and universities to ensure equitable access to certified halal foods.

“When we create any food service program, we need to have engagement with the consumer – whether it’s at the university or at the public-school level – and we need to develop a really clear understanding of their expectations so we can build trust and transparency in our program,” Ahad tells Food Tank.

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Photo courtesy of Cultivating Community, Kelsey Kobik

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The program, now in its fifth year, aims to increase knowledge around scratch cooking, assist with implementing operational changes to support scratch cooking, and support districts working towards a scratch cooked meal program centered around fresh, whole foods. The grant is US$250,000.

GSC grant applications are being accepted through September 30, 2022, and any school district in the U.S. can apply, as long as they meet the eligibility requirements. The link to apply can be found here.

CAF will select school districts based on factors including a demonstrated commitment to scratch cooking and need for support, and past cohorts have included up to seven school districts. Grantees will be notified in November 2022.

CAF was founded as a nonprofit in 2009. Through its GSC program, they have reached 241 schools and 75,788 children through. “In general, there’s a perception that scratch cooking is impossible to implement,” Anneliese Tanner, Senior Director of Research & Assessment at CAF tells Food Tank. Tanner argues that it is possible but emphasizes “making this transition is not an overnight process.” Staff need to learn how to scale scratch cooking and produce hundreds of meals served within a 30-to-60-minute window, she explains.

The GSC upcoming cohort will focus on “[helping] districts overcome barriers that arose due to the pandemic, from staffing shortages, to supply chain issues,” Tanner shares. This grant cycle will explore how scratch cooking can have positive impacts through the supply chain and the shift towards more local ingredients.

“Each district is unique, whether it’s their size, or their location, or the food production model and the facilities that they have. And so we take all of their individual traits and situations into account and then focus on those upstream factors that strengthen school food operations,” Tanner tells Food Tank. The program helps guide schools towards becoming self-operated programs through five key areas: foods, finance, facilities, human resources, and marketing.

“When you’re scratch cooking, you have control over the ingredients and more control over what you’re offering,” Tanner says. “You can be more flexible and bring in items that are halal or Kosher, or plan menus that have a vegetarian item every day; scratch cooking makes food more accessible for students.”

Tanner adds that scratch cooking makes it easier for school districts to serve a variety of foods while also incorporating the culturally relevant options. As part of this ongoing work, CAF partnered with the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leadership Council to help schools on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana transition to serving culturally relevant meals.

The GSC program begins in February 2023 in Bellingham, WA, where the first GSC cohort was held. This will allow food service directors and key staff members from each district to learn directly from those who have already completed the program. Following this introductory session, CAF will conduct an on-site operational assessment for each district and work with the food service directors to create a plan. A US$35,000 systems grant will cover the expense of new equipment, training for staff, and data solutions, while also providing ongoing technical support to put the strategic plan into action.

CAF is also accepting applications for their Healthy School Food Pathway: Pre-Apprenticeship Program and Salad Bars to School grant. In addition to these programs, CAF is engaged with advocacy work surrounding the Child Reauthorization Nutrition Act, the Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act, and the upcoming White House Conference on  Food, Nutrition, Hunger, and Health.

Mara Fleishman, CEO at CAF tells Food Tank that CAF has asked the White House to consider labor during the conference: “Schools reach every community throughout our country and by increasing the federal reimbursement rates, schools can increase the quality of the meals they serve to their students, while at the same time provide better career opportunities to their community members. This can also help school districts attract talent and enhance the value of the school food workforce.”

CAF is hosting a 45-minute virtual webinar about the GSC grant on Wednesday, September 7 at 11:00 AM EDT. Pre-registration is required to attend.

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Photo courtesy of The Chef Ann Foundation

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