It once was a given that the lunchroom lady got to work early and sweated over hot ovens until the kids came streaming in for lunch. That paradigm went the way of the victory garden until it became a given that school food was almost inedible with pretend chicken nuggets and bright yellow macaroni and cheese.
Today, the lunchroom lady… and gentleman are back, cooking real food for real kids who just might be able to function better as a result. Wednesday, The New York Times ran a major feature on how the Greeley school district has fully embraced the real food movement, even hiring an executive chef from the Culinary Institute of America.
But Greeley is not alone. Boulder Valley Schools have such real food that they even have a catering department where you can order food for your next event. This Friday, there will be a fundraiser with such musical guests as Todd Park Mohr and Mollie O’Brien to raise money for the Boulder Schools food program.
Denver, too, has cooks wandering outside to pluck fresh foods from school gardens. “We’re doing a lot of scratch cooking and using produce from school gardens in our cafeterias,” notes district spokesperson Michael Vaughn. Last year, in fact, Denver brought in professional chefs to teach district chefs the art of scratch cooking.
So far, the district has been able to use about 1200 pounds a year of school grown produce, which may not make much of a dent in the total produce budget but no doubt helps a lot of kids make the connection between growing vegetables and eating lunch.