Cooking Outside the Box: How a Scratch Cooking Pilot in the Bronx Is Reshaping Meals in New York City Schools December, 2019 Tisch Food Center Report
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3URJUDPLQ1XWULWLRQ Tisch Food Center Report Cooking Outside the Box: How a Scratch Cooking Pilot in the Bronx is Reshaping Meals In New York City Schools December, 2019 Tisch Food Center Report Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy Program in Nutrition Teachers College, Columbia University 3URJUDPLQ1XWULWLRQ The Center cultivates research about connections between a just, sustainable food system and healthy eating and translates it into recommendations and resources for educators, policy makers, and community advocates. The Center focuses on schools as critical levers for learning and social change. Research Team Raynika Trent, MEd, MA, Project Director Deeana Ijaz Ahmed, MS, MPH Doctoral Scholar Tara Abularrage, Research Assistant Geri Herisse, Research Assistant Cara Herman, Research Assistant Anais Sanchez, Research Assistant Pamela Koch, EdD, RD, Principal Investigator Photo Credits: Photographs in this report were taken as part of this evaluation by Raynika Trent, Deeana Ijaz, Pam Koch, and the Brigaid team. Icons (policies, practices, people, promotion) from: 123rf, Image ID: 20240177 Sergey Kandakov Suggested Citation Trent, R., Ijaz Ahmed, D., and Koch P. (2019) Cooking Outside the Box: How a Scratch Cooking Pilot in The Bronx is Reshaping Meals in New York City Schools. Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy, Program in Nutrition, Teachers College, Columbia University. December, 2019. Support for this evaluation was provided by Anonymous Donor Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation New York City Department of Education New York Community Trust New York State Health Foundation For more information about this resource or the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy please contact Claire Raffel, Deputy Director at 212-678-3693 or [email protected] www.tc.edu/tisch – 2 – Tisch Food Center Report Acknowledgments We sincerely thank everyone at the Office of Food and Nutrition Services (OFNS) of the New York City Department of Education for your enthusiasm and desire for this Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot to be evaluated. We also send a big shout out to all OFNS staff in the kitchens at the pilot schools who welcomed us to watch their every move with warmth and true hospitality. To the principals, teachers, school staff, and everyone at the pilot schools, we appreciate your willingness to not only be part of this pilot but also for having us, as evaluators, become part of your school community. Thank you to our funders who believed in this study and made the data collection and production of this report possible. And, finally we want to thank everyone who works toward, and cares about, making school meals an enjoyable, delicious, culturally relevant, and educational part of the school day. – 3 – Tisch Food Center Report Table of Contents Acronyms. 7 IV. Ingredients and Recipes for Scratch Cooking 44 Overview. 44 Letter from the Executive Director . 9 Policies. 45 Key Takeaways. 10 Practices . 47 Executive Summary . 11 People . 48 Promotion . 49 I. Introduction . 29 Summary. 51 Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot . 29 Key Findings . 51 Time Right for Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot . 29 Goals for this Evaluation . .31 V. A Kitchen for Scratch Cooking . 52 Define Scratch Cooking . 31 Overview. 52 Why the Bronx . 32 Policies. 53 Small Steps for a Big Impact: Practices . 54 Beginning with a Pilot. 33 People . 61 Thinking Bigger: Expansion . 33 Promotion . 61 II. Scratch Cooking Systems Change . 34 Summary. 62 Systems . .34 Key Findings . 62 Systems Entrepreneurs . .38 VI. Cooking from Scratch . 64 III. Evaluation Methods . 39 Overview. 64 Study Design . 39 Policies. 65 Goals for this Evaluation . .39 Practices . 68 Data Collection Methods and Analysis. 39 People . 75 Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot Timeline . 42 Promotion . 79 Summary. 80 Key Findings . 80 Cooking Outside the Box – 4 – Table of Contents Tisch Food Center Report Table of Contents VII. Feeding the Community . 82 IX. A Path to Expansion . .103 Overview. 82 Expanding Scratch Cooking. 103 Policies. 85 Four Phases of Expansion . 103 Practices . 85 Phase 1 – Expansion Within OFNS . 104 People . 88 Phase 2 – Expand Full Scratch Cooked Menu to More Kitchens . 105 Promotion . 93 Phase 3 – Systematize Scratch Cooking. 106 Community Dinners . 96 Phase 4 – Build Excitement and Acceptance for Summary. 98 Scratch Cooked School Meals . 109 Key Findings . 98 X. Conclusion . .115 VIII. Metrics . .100 References . .116 Introducing Metrics. 100 Student Participation . 101 Food and Supply Costs . 102 Labor Costs . 102 Conclusion . 102 Cooking Outside the Box – 5 – Table of Contents Tisch Food Center Report Table of Contents: Boxes I. Introduction IV. Ingredients and Recipes for Scratch Cooking 1.1: Trends Impacting Scratch Cooking . 30 4.1: Examples of New Ingredients . 46 1.2: Key Player Statements of Scratch Cooking . 32 VII. Feeding The Community 1.3: Contextualizing Scratch Cooking . 32 7.1: Student Attitude Survey Data, 4th Grade . 90 II. Scratch Cooking Systems Change 7.2: Student Attitude Survey Data, 7th Grade . 90 2.1: The Four Elements of the Return to Scratch 7.3: Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot Cooking Pilot (RSCP). 35 Media Coverage . .93 2.2: The Interconnections of the Return to Scratch 7.4: Community Dinner Satisfaction Survey . 97 Cooking Pilot (RSCP). 35 VIII. Metrics 2.3: Ingredients and Recipes for Scratch Cooking: Interconnections of RSCP . 36 8.1: Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot Metrics Overview. 101 2.4: A Kitchen for Scratch Cooking: Interconnections of RSCP . 36 8.2: Site A Month-by-Month Labor Costs Per 100 Meal Equivalency (M/E). 102 2.5: Cooking from Scratch: Interconnections of RSCP. 37 IX. A Path to Expansion 2.6: Feeding the Community: Interconnections of 9.1: Initiation of the Return to Scratch Cooking RSCP. 37 Pilot Starting Small . 104 III. Evaluation Methods 9.2: Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot Roll-Out . 106 3.1: Data Collection Details . 40 9.3: Promoting Scratch Cooking–Serving Line to Food and Nutrition Education . 111 3.2: Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot Timeline . 43 Cooking Outside the Box – 6 – Table of Contents Tisch Food Center Report Acronyms Short Hand Name ADA Average Daily Attendance CBO Community Based Organization DOE Department of Education DOHMH Department of Health and Mental Hygiene FDNY Fire Department of the City of New York FOS Food Ordering System FPR Food Production Records FY Fiscal Year GFPP Good Food Purchasing Program HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point HHFKA Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 ILF Intervention Level Framework M/E Meal Equivalency NSLP National School Lunch Program OFNS Office of Food and Nutrition Services OSIS Office of School Information Systems PP Participation Percentage PCM Paper, Cleaning, Miscellaneous PD Professional Development RSCP Return to Scratch Cooking Pilot SCA School Construction Authority SFSM School Food Service Manager SLH School Lunch Helper SOP Standard Operating Procedure USDA United States Department of Agriculture WITS Wellness in the Schools YTD Year-to-Date Cooking Outside the Box – 7 – Acronyms Tisch Food Center Report Cooking Outside the Box – 8 – Tisch Food Center Report Letter from the Executive Director “’After bread,’ said the greatest of the French revolutionary statesmen, ‘education is the first need of people.’ The fierce and intrepid common-sense of Danton enabled him to see the vital importance of public instruction, but it enabled him to see that education is not and cannot be the first need of a people. The first need is food.” - After Bread, Education: A Plan for the State Feeding of School Children, The Fabien Society, April 1905 That 1905 quote makes the case for feeding school students. While we may believe that the United States accomplished this with the creation of the National School Lunch Program in 1946, over 60 years later we have not yet achieved the essence of Georges Danton’s urging. That is, make feeding students, and feeding them well, a core priority of schools. Eating during a long school day increases students’ readiness to learn. What students eat and their experiences at school meals teaches students a lot about food, health, community, culture, and life. Cooking Outside the Box: How a Scratch Cooking Pilot in The Bronx is Reshaping Meals in New York City Schools, describes how two New York City (NYC) public school kitchens transitioned to a full scratch cooked menu and how this is leading the way to long-term change in what NYC school students eat at school. This is a “systems change evaluation.” That means we spent a lot of time in the two kitchens that were in this pilot. We carefully documented what changed and how change happened. We looked at four big elements of change: • Ingredients and Recipes for Scratch Cooking showed us what new ingredients were needed to transform to scratch cooking. We also learned about how recipes had to be practical, kid-appropriate, and, of course, meet the nutritional standards of our national school meal programs. • A Kitchen for Scratch Cooking helped us understand how the kitchens were set up. We saw walk-in coolers transition from boxes of packaged food to fresh foods in clear bins. We saw raw protein zones that ensured food safety. We saw fresh fruit and vegetable chopping set up in areas visible to students as they went through the serving line. • Cooking from Scratch showed us what goes on when school meals are scratch cooked. We saw sauces made from fresh whole ingredients, smoothies made with immersion blenders, and bone-in raw chicken marinated overnight, then cooked the following day. • Feeding the Community showed us how serving lines were set up to entice students to try new foods. While teachers, principals, parents, and students were excited about the scratch cooked meals, this was still a big change. Change is hard and change takes time. We learned that constant communication about, and attention to, school meals by everyone in the school community is needed to meet Danton’s vision of “after bread, education.” If you are from NYC, we hope you enjoy learning what happened during this pilot.