NYC’s ‘Ray’ of hope
5-star chefs to craft ‘haute’ school lunch
How good is that?
New York City is enlisting the help of celebrity chef Rachael Ray in the hopes of finally getting kids to say “Yum-o” to school lunches.
City Hall is launching a “Chefs Council,” led by the daytime-TV star, to develop more than 100 plant-based recipes for public schools.
“The new Chefs Council will develop delicious, nutritious, culturally relevant meals for schools with direct input from students and parents,” Mayor Adams said.
The initiative follows student complaints over less-than-“delish” menu options, including stale waffles and barely cooked chicken nuggets.
The Chefs Council includes 12 members from the culinary industry, TV and food activism. Ray and other chefs on the council — from BuzzFeed’s Tasty food videos chef JJ Johnson to Metropolitan Museum of Art culinary director Bill Telepan — will train school cooks in partnership with the national nonprofit Wellness in the Schools.
The recipes will be tested in all five boroughs this school year as part of monthly seasonal menus. The full program will be rolled out to all schools by next school year.
“This initiative will help to expand our menus while making sure they follow our strict health standards and are reflective of the cultures and communities we serve,” said Schools Chancellor David Banks.
Adams, a sometimes vegan and the author of the 2020 book “Healthy at Last,” has been vocal about how switching to a healthier diet saved his eyesight and improved his life.
The health-conscious mayor, early in his tenure, rolled out weekly vegan school meals, later rebranded as “Plant Powered Fridays,” to reflect some of the vegetarian, as well as vegan, options available.
But school lunches still have been getting hit with complaints. A popular Instagram profile documented gross school lunches at one Queens high school — likened on the student-run account to “slathered diarrhea all over my plate.”
Food quality in public schools later sparked a City Council oversight hearing in June, where students testified about unpopular food options that had them throwing their trays in the trash.