Tamia Ferguson samples school salad.
Arianna Donovan said she couldn’t “understand” her school’s new brown rice salad with black beans and yellow peppers. Tamia Ferguson said her mom makes better collard greens, and refused to give up the secret family recipe.
Those were two of several tough second-grade reviews of new lunch offerings rolled out Tuesday morning at the New Haven Public Schools, as the district moves toward a more vegetable-centric menu. Adriana and Tamia offered their reviews in the cafeteria at Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School.
The Board of Ed announced it’s installing 33 new salad bars thanks to a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation, the eponymous arm of Whole Foods Market and its partners. The new salad bars will appear in 85 percent of New Haven public schools, including all K‑8 schools.
It’s the largest single grant to any school system by the foundation, which has awarded 1,000 such grants nationwide. The in-kind grant comprises pots, utensils, cuttings boards, and movable carts, augmented by recipes and training videos for staff.
Tuesday’s announcement was attended by head schools chef Tim Cipriano (aka the “Food Dude”), U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Superintendent Reggie Mayo, and Ken Meyer, a board member at the Whole Kids Foundation.
Meyer said Cipriano was key to the salad bars grant: “A champion like Tim made the difference.”
Since he was brought on in the spring of 2008 to bring more fresh food to the school system, Cipriano has helped raise New Haven’s profile as the scene of not only school reform, but school food reform.
Under Cipriano’s leadership, soda has been banned from schools and school lunches have moved toward whole grains and less processed food.
Allan Appel Photo
Arianna Donovan (left) and Tamia Ferguson sample the new public school fare.
Meyer, DeLauro, Mayo, and others said salad bars and healthy eating are essential in the battle for kids’ health.
“Kids consume 35 to 50 percent of their daily calories during school day,” said DeLauro. “What you do here addresses the epidemic of obesity and hunger.”
Meyer said strokes are on the rise among children.
Officials said Cipriano will be rolling out a new vegetable centric-menu on October 4.
In addition to the rice and black bean salad that puzzled Tamia, Cipriano said other offerings soon to come include a vegetable chili, roasted sweet potato and black bean salad, and homemade vegetable enchiladas.
The school system’s first-ever full-time dietician, Sarah Borque, is helping Cipriano. She is employed under funding from a partnership between Yale University and the National Institutes of Health.
“As much dark green and orange [as] possible,” was how she described the new offerings on the menu. She said kale and spinach will be a big part of the salad bars, in addition to the usual cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and lettuce.
Lentil “sloppy joes” are also headed for school cafeterias, said Borque. She said her goal is to have salads with a protein and a grain, among other ingredients. Such salads qualify as a full meal — even without meat — according to guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Cipriano wanted to know if Tamia would tell him how to improve the rice and beans and the collard greens.
Tamia said that in addition to more garlic, her mom uses a secret ingredient in her cooking.
What is it? Cipriano pressed her.
“I won’t tell you the secret ingredient,” she said.
“Smoked turkey?”
“No.”
“We’ll have to bring you to the principal’s office,” he joked.
Tamia still didn’t budge, and told Cipriano not to call her mom to try to ask her.
From Salad Bar to School Farm?
Outside the cafeteria, the Barnard school boasts an expansive garden with Oxheart heirloom tomatoes grown by students like seventh graders Nicole Celone and Beyonce Harris (pictured).
Schools like Barnard and the Sound School already grow food that is served at their school cafeterias. Cipriano said as much as possible of the food in the new salad bars is to be locally grown.
He said his dream is to grow all the school’s fresh vegetables on a school farm. While the idea is still a gleam in his eye, he envisions a 20- to 40-acre farm worked by students.
Chief Operating Officer Will Clark said an exploratory look at properties in Cheshire fell through. “We didn’t have the resources to throw at the land.”
A grant that would have funded purchase of farmland was not successful, he said. Many farms in the Branford and North Haven area might have suitable land, he said. If another grant possibility came around, “we’d pursue it,” he said.