Leveraging Institutional Dollars for a Just and Healthy Food System -Good food in schools initiative
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This document summarizes the goals and activities of an organization called WE ACT focused on improving school food. Their long term goal is to get good, healthy food in schools. They define good food as healthy, fresh, and safe. Their midterm policy goal is to get geographic preference in NYC school food contracts to source more local food. Their midterm organizing goal is to build a base of 60 parents through school food trainings. They conduct research on school food procurement, supply chains, and attitudes towards school food. Their policy advocacy goal is to get geographic preference in school food bids to localize and improve quality of food while supporting the local economy.
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Leveraging Institutional Dollars for a Just and Healthy Food System -Good food in schools initiative
- 1. Good Food in Schools Initiative
- 6. THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW THEIR FOOD COMES FROM FACTORS IN CHINA.
- 8. Community Organizing Parent School Food Trainings West Harlem: PS 161 Washington Heights: MS 326 and MS 328 East Harlem: CPEII and PS 171
- 11. DOE Food Contract Outside of NYS $$ Amount J & J SNACK FOODS CORP. $1,022,017.59 HIGH LINER FOODS INC $6,271,805.22 KELLOGG SALES COMPANY $4,096,169.58 HANOVER FOODS $3,858,570.75 COMFORT CREEK FOODS LLC $13,332,837.83 MICHAEL FOODS $1,076,218.00 ECHO LAKE FOODS INC. $1,686,303.36 MALT-O-MEAL COMPANY $1,925,475.93 PILGRIMS PRIDE CORP $4,719,627.00 DON LEE FARMS $6,712,647.24 DRISCOLL FOODS $16,240,291.00 DRISCOLL FOODS $10,816,550.00 Total # $71,758,513.50 DOE Food Contract Inside NYS $$ Amount LINDEN COOKIES, INC. $4,967,174.10 GOLDEN KRUST CARIBBEAN BAKERY $2,340,768.60 MARA MOUNT CORPORATION $13,320,452.00 CHEF'S CHOICE FOOD DISTRIBUTION $3,551,261.00 Total # $24,179,655.70
Editor's Notes
- Geographic preference means that if the DOE would have the ability to require that vendor purchase a food from a particular geographic area, that could be defined as New York State, the tri state area, the east coast, or some other region.
- I’d like to give you a warning sign of the state of school food in our NYC and this country. The school food system is so perverted by profit, despicably drive by lowest costs, and diametrically opposed to children’s health that frozen ices are considered a fruit juice like the one in my hand. I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen a frozen ice growing on a tree, expect perhaps in a children’s commercial.
- Or maybe they don’t want parents to know that many of their products contain High Fructose Corn Syrup, contributing to childhood obesity.
- Maybe they don’t want you to know that some of their products like tuna and peaches are manufactured thousands of miles away in China, contributing to global warming.
- And unfortunately, many of the healthier school food options like fruits and vegetables are canned and frozen, coming from countries like China, as these product labels indicate. Collards greens, peaches, and pears are all products of the U.S. and NYS. Some of their other foods that come from abroad are broccoli, spinach, and sweet potatoes. In short, our NYC school food system is globalized, industrialized, and centralized within a handful of manufacturers and distributors as I will discuss in the next few slides. So how do we change this?
- How do we get good food in schools to contribute to positive health outcomes for children? At the heart of our good food in schools initiative is community organizing. Why community organizing? We believe that organizing is crucial because when we are talking about solving health and food access disparities we are really talking about disparities in power. Who has and who doesn’t have power when it comes to making decisions about what food is purchased for school meals, how menus are created, and when kids eat. To being building community power we’ve conducted workshops at the schools above of the last year and our effort is beginning to produce positive outcomes. For example we had six parents from CPEI attend a hearing on school food in March and at PS 161 parents met with the food service manager to discuss menu creation. One of the most important things we learned so far in doing our trainings is that if there’s more than one school in a building, you need to work with all of them. This is because even if a change in school food changes at one school it might not last long if other schools in a building want something different. For example one of our schools is more concerned about getting kids to eat healthy food while another school in their building is more concerned about kids eating anything at all.
- To support our organizing we conduct research on who has power over DOE procurement, the corporate supply chain for school food, and the ingredients of school food. We also currently seeking a principle researcher to conduct research with us on the attitudes and beliefs that parents and food service managers have about school food.
- From our legal research on procurement we’ve determined that the DOE Chancellor and Mayor should be are targets because the have the most power over school food procurement. We’ve also determined that 75% of DOE food money goes outside of state.
- These two charts detail the DOE Food contracts that go to companies outside of NYS and inside of NYS, and how much money is spent. Clearly, NYS and NYC are loosing out on our own tax dollars spent on school food. From 2009 to 2012 the DOE will spend an estimated $$95 million dollars on food. 75% of the money DOE spends on food through direct procurement contracts goes to manufactures and distributors outside NYC and the NYS
- Again our goal is to get geographic preference.
- Some school food manufacturers are located right here in NYC. United Pickle in the Bronx, Damascuses Bakery and Crepini Café in Brooklyn.
- So we are going to target the people who have the power to make the change we want to see in DOE requests for bids. We are currently in the process of creating a coalition that will advocate for our proposed changes to the Chancellor and the Mayor.