Maya McFadden photo
NHPS Food Services Director Baron Young: Backing up student ID numbers will avoid cafeteria traffic jams.
Faster lunch lines. More student feedback. Less wasted food.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Food Services Director Baron Young has these goals in mind as he learns and works to resolve a myriad of food-related concerns six months into the role.
Young recently spoke with this reporter about how his first half-year on the job has been, at the district’s food services headquarters at 75 Barnes Ave.
Young’s motto is that the district’s students are the department’s “number-one customers.” He’s on a mission to “improve customer satisfaction.”
The Board of Education signed off on hiring Young in June 2023. He officially took on the role July 10, replacing long-time NHPS Director of Food Services Gail Cairns-Sharry upon her retirement.
Outside of 75 Barnes Ave., which houses the NHPS food service dept.
Young’s start in child nutrition services came after being a teacher of Business Technology and College Career Preparedness for two years in Montgomery Public Schools in Alabama. He was then promoted to field supervisor for the Montgomery Child Nutrition Services department. In this role he provided technical and supervisor support for 21 of 59 schools in the region. Before moving here, he most recently served as a regional operations manager for child nutrition services at a Houston charter school.
He described having a passion for “being able to give back and provide to the students of the school district.”
During the past six months with NHPS, Young visited schools across the city to talk with cafeteria staffers and collect student feedback. The most common feedback he’s received so far: Students want more variety and better quality food served in school cafeterias.
Back-up IDs
Young (right) with Food Services Department Administrative Assistant Cheryl Myers.
Young learned in his first months here that some cafeteria lines are too long and are not moving fast enough. Some students don’t have enough time to eat during their allotted lunch periods, he said.
As a result, Young is piloting portal kiosk stations using iPads at six schools to hopefully improve line speeds and allow students to get to their seats faster. The iPads are used to store the students’ five-digit ID numbers, which are needed to claim the students’ meals for the day. Young said long lines at cafeterias are in part due to students forgetting their ID numbers, which they need before they can exit the lunch line.
Young has also re-dispersed a list of the student ID numbers to all school sites for educators to have in case their students forget.
Maya McFadden file photo
Student composers at Wilbur Cross pilot district composting effort last school year.
Young is also working on re-training cafeteria teams to prevent overproduction of meals each day. Staffers keep track of daily serving numbers to better learn their customers and avoid cooking too much food.
Young said he is also currently researching what available compostable or eco-friendly items, besides the current compostable trays, the district uses.
He’s supporting existing efforts to send food home to families during breaks. The most recent food gap distribution took place on Dec. 27 for winter break. Distributions also occur during spring break and towards the end of August before the school year starts but after summer meals come to an end.
Young helped craft a food policy in the fall that charges the district and department with prioritizing purchasing locally grown food products for the district when possible to support local farmers and production happening in Connecticut.
This October, for Connecticut’s National Farm to School Month, NHPS celebrated Connecticut Grown for Connecticut Kids Week at Ross Woodward. The event had Connecticut farmers bring in fresh produce like kale and squash for students to try.
Contributed Photo
At Ross Woodward's food tasting event.
NHPS food service staff at recent School Nutrition Association CT Conference.