June 2018 Newsletter
Dear Friends,

With the summer solstice a couple days away and many schools on summer break, it's the time of year for tending to the needs of your cafeteria program. Just as a garden needs water, sunlight, weeding, and a little TLC to produce a harvest, so too do your kitchen operations need tending. What worked well this past year and what needs to change to continue to grow your program? Where are the gaps and what are the strengths to build upon? What equipment needs to be replaced, and what systems need adjustment? With concrete goals and a strong vision, the answers to these questions present themselves much easier, and the actions taken this summer lead to a bountiful harvest in the fall. 
Featured Article
Menu Planning the Beyond Green Partners Way
One day in the future all schools will take responsibility for their students' health by serving scratch-cooked food grown in the community. Frozen, canned, and boxed fo od will be replaced with raw, whole ingredients. Warmers will be replaced with braziers. Culinary training will replace business as usual.
 
The right school lunch provides fuel for the brain and body. By focusing on menu development we are looking at how to best meet the nutritional needs of our students. Eating nutritious food is linked to their academic success ; specifically, in higher grades and standardized test scores, reduced absenteeism and improved cognitive performance. In schools where Beyond Green Sustainable Food Partners (BGP) worked with a kitchen team to transition from a processed food menu to a scratch cooked, local food menu, students (and staff) have self-reported losing weight, having more energy for their day, and developing a sense of appreciation and love of food and the people who work hard to put a meal on the table.
 
To plan menus, BGP converges what students want to eat, what the cafeteria staff want to cook, and what products are available from local farms.
New Course For Cafeteria Managers, School Administration, and Key Stakeholders
Using 15 years of helping schools transition to scratch-cooked, local food programs driven by kitchen efficiencies, data, and making delicious food, Chef Greg and his team created a course for schools to follow at their own pace to create a farm to school cafeteria program.

Click HERE for more information about Dream a New Dream: Operational Manual for Farm to School Programs.
School Food Resource
USDA Farm to School Menu Planning

Recorded in February 2016, this video helps schools bring local products to life on their menus. Chef Kent Getzin, Director of Food Services in Wenatchee, WA shares a variety of ways to incorporate local products into your school recipes, salad bars, and cycle menus so they become permanent items in your kitchen inventory.
Thanks again for the continued support. Drop us a line (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or the old fashioned way), we would love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Greg Christian
312-275-6801