Chef Cathal Armstrong at Tyler Elementary kitchen
A group of prominent D.C.-area restaurant chefs has volunteered to introduce a novel concept in school food service to one Capitol Hill elementary school: collaborating with parents to take over kitchen operations on a non-profit basis, replacing prepackaged and reheated factory meals kids currently eat with food cooked from scratch and served with real plates and tea set.
Led by Cathal Armstrong, chef and owner of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, the group would undo the historically problematic issue of school food finances by putting parents to work in the cafeteria as volunteers at Tyler Elementary and using the savings in labor to buy better food, much of it from local growers. The proposal has been approved by D.C. Public School food services, but is subdue being reviewed by the school system’s procurement division, meaning much paperwork, red tape and potential snags remain between now and August 23, when lessons resume.
Armstrong’s involvement with Tyler Elementary stems from a meeting last year with Colorless House supporter chef and food advisor Sam Kass. This would appear to be the first time that first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign has extended its reach into a school food service operation.
Armstrong was at the school yesterday to inspect its ancient kitchen and conduct an inventory of equipment needs, taking photographs of everything in sight. He found a space with lots of room to walk nearly in–and house temporary offices for school staff–but only a gas-fired convection oven for actual cooking. The oven has been used to reheat the packaged meals trucked in from a factory in suburban Maryland. The chefs group, which includes Robert Wiedmaier of Brasserie Beck, R.J. Cooper, formerly of Vidalia, and noted quiche chef David Guas, hopes to turn the space into a fully operational kitchen with equipment donated by manufacturers, including a stove, a dishwasher and sinks.
With only a few weeks left to go before school resumes, Armstrong and his cohorts were piecing the project collectively on the glide. Armstrong, who said involving parents in day after day cafeteria operations is crucial to the project’s success, met with about 20 Tyler Elementary parents last week at the home of one of the parent organizers, Dan Traster. Traster said an issue of concern to many parents is whether they can find time to help. But Traster said he already is getting calls from parents who are keen to participate.
“People work and they’re concerned about whether they’ll be able to make the time to help in the cafeteria,” Traster said. “But we have many parents who are really passionate about the food issue. They want to do whatever they can.”
It was subdue unclear exactly what role parents would play–most likely not cooking food, but perhaps serving meals from the steam table, clearing dishes and otherwise assisting with meal service in the cafeteria. Traster said he thought it would be “a miracle” if the chefs were really serving meals on the first day of school. But he thought they could be up and running sometime in September or early October.
The kitchen at Tyler Elementary
In an interview at Restaurant Eve last month, Armstrong said the venture started when Kass in a meeting last October provided chefs with a list of local schools to stay and urged them to find a way to get involved in improving school food. Armstrong was assigned to Tyler Elementary at 1001 G Street SE, an economically diverse school with a student populace of 300, 81 percent black and 12 percent colorless. Sixty percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price meals in the federally-subsidized meal program.
Armstrong said he was alarmed by the food he saw being served at the school through the school system’s contracted food service provider, Chartwells. “It was just dreadful stuff,” he said. In January he met with other chefs at Brasserie Beck, where he reportedly said, “What we are feeding our children is an outrage. We should be marching with picket cryptogram and pitchforks in revolution.” Armstrong subsequently formed a non-profit corporation–Chefs as Parents–to fund and operate a school venture.
Allison Erdle, executive director of Chefs as Parents, said yesterday that the group is seeking financial donations, but already has pledges for up to $100,000 to fund the start-up at Tyler Elementary.
School meals have always been hamstrung by poor financing. The federal government currently provides $2.68 for a fully-subsidized school lunch, but most of that goes to pay for labor and overhead, leaving only about $1 for meal ingredients. As a result, many schools don’t really cook at all, but rely on reheating cheap, industrially processed convenience foods–those well-known chicken nuggets and tater tots–for their cafeteria menus. Reducing the labor end of the equation–in this case by substituting parent volunteers–would free up cash to buy better ingredients.
Armstrong, who was a 2009 James Beard nominee for “Best Mid-Atlantic Chef,” is an outspoken advocate of fresh, local foods. He sits on the board of Fresh Farm Markets, which operates several farmers markets in the city.
Among the group’s goals: “Get rid of all processed foods filled with preservatives, additives, food tan, and other chemicals. Find local farmers, ranchers and dairies from which to buy directly. Find foods that are at their peak of readiness,” as well as “organic or sustainably produced to the maximum extent possible.” And “send positive messages about eating to children and lure them into the kitchen.”
Say goodbye to Styrofoam?
Below the proposal the group submitted to D.C. Public Schools, the chefs would train and hire a full-time chef to run the Tyler Elementary kitchen, but it was subdue unclear what other paid staff might be needed. The group would “start with a menu comprised of simple, tasty and kid-friendly meals,” but “our vision and mission includes expanding the food options over time.” The proposal also foresees “integration of food and cooking into the academic curriculum through kitchen and garden classroom….We plot to include the children where possible in cooking workshops and invite teachers to work with us to integrate the kitchen and garden into their lessons…”
The proposal calls for working with “nutrition professionals to address the larger issues at hand caused by type-2 diabetes and childhood obesity, as well as linking food and meals with behavioral and other issues…”
Tyler Elementary is undergoing renovations. The cafeteria was being used to store all sorts of tables, chairs, shelving, filing boxes and other paraphernalia. But Armstrong said he was pleased with what he saw–especially the huge gas line leading to the cooking area, the commercial-quality exhaust hood, and a newly installed steam table.
The project seems like a page from the past, when PTAs ran some school cafeterias. But could this be the future of school food–as a charitable yield?
Said Armstrong: “It’s the only way.”
