The most important step you can take as a parent to improve the food at your school is to form a Wellness Committee with other parents at your school who feel as passionately about the issue as you do and who want to be catalysts for change. Below are some brief guidelines for how to get started. We will be supplementing these guidelines with more detailed information in the weeks ahead.
Form a Wellness Committee at Your School
Form a Wellness Committee with other parents at your school. If your school shares a building and cafeteria with another school, than approach their PA/PTA and see if parents at their school would be interested in joining your committee. You will not be able to implement any changes unless all the schools in your building are on board. Commit to monthly meetings.
Come Up With a List of Changes/Goals for Your Cafeteria
Make sure everyone is on the same page as far as the kinds of changes you wish to see. Some schools have sent questionnaires home in the kids’ backpacks to get feedback from as many parents as possible about changes they’d like to see from Meatless Mondays to getting rid of the chocolate milk loaded with high-fructose corn syrup.
Meet with Your SchoolFood Manager
Each school is assigned its own SchoolFood Manager. Some Managers have mutiple schools to manage. The job of your SchoolFood Manager is to accommodate the requests of parents as much as possible. Speak with your SchoolFood Manager about your concerns and changes you’d like to see to the menu. Contact your SchoolFood Regional Director (below) to get the name and contact information of your SchoolFood Manager.
SchoolFood Regional Director Contact Information:
Manhattan: (917) 339-1744 sobrien@schools.nyc.gov
Bronx: (718) 741-8815 lmizrahi@schools.nyc.gov
Brooklyn I: (718) 935-3411 mfigueroa@schools.nyc.gov
(Community School Districts 13, 14, 16, 19, 23, and 32)
Brooklyn II/Staten Island: (718) 714-0386 vtammaro@schools.nyc.gov
(Community School Districts 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 31)
Queens: 718 391- 6883 tcashin@schools.nyc.gov
Invite Your Manager and Kitchen Supervisor to Monthly Meetings of the Wellness Committee
Make sure your manager and kitchen supervisor are available on the day you have your meetings, and have part of the meeting be a time where you can review the progress of the agreed upon changes together.
If Your SchoolFood Manager is Not Being Cooperative
If Your SchoolFood Manager is not being cooperative about the changes you want to see and you know other schools which are already enjoying those changes, let them know that. Once a precedence has been set at another school, your SchoolFood Manager cannot say no to you, unless it’s impossible for them to meet your request. For example, if you want Meatless Mondays at your school, tell them you know The Children’s Workshop School and the East Village Community School are enjoying Meatless Mondays and that you want to join them.
If you’re still meeting with resistance, contact your SchoolFood Regional Director (above).
Invite NYC Green Schools to a Meeting
A member of NYC Green Schools would be happy to attend a Wellness Committee meeting at your school to help guide you through the process and let you know what’s worked at other schools. Email us if you’re interested in having us speak with parents at your school about the truth of the food in our schools and what parents can do to improve it.
Be Patient
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and this process requires time, effort and a big dose of empathy. We all want tastier, healthier meals for our children, whether we are parents or lunch ladies – but changes can be disruptive, and the Office of SchoolFoods is serving nearly 1 million meals a day. Change might not be fast, but it is possible! With persistence, you will get the changes you want.
more...