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Q&A
Discussion on food education programs in schools
11:01:50
ยท
142 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph inquires about food education in New York City schools, including nutrition committees. Representatives from food education organizations provide insights on current programs and challenges.
- Food education programs include cooking classes, gardening, composting, and hydroponics
- Nutrition committees have been difficult for schools to sustain due to lack of dedicated funding and capacity
- Some schools have shifted nutrition committee responsibilities to food education partners with success
Rita Joseph
11:01:50
What does food education look like in New York City in schools, not just New York City schools?
11:01:56
And in FY twenty five New York City public schools told us there was funding for some nutrition committees in schools.
11:02:02
Have you all heard about this?
11:02:03
Are you able to collaborate with these committees?
Natalie Greaves-Peters
11:02:12
Yes, so we've been very fortunate in the last couple of years with the mayor's office has given us funding to and community based organizations to have nutrition education programming within schools And what that looks like it's basically experiential learning, predominantly cooking classes, gardening classes, compost and hydroponics.
11:02:34
So stuff that's connecting not just you know educationally educational content but experiential learning activities also.
Allison Marino
11:02:45
And then to answer your question about the you asked specifically about Nutrition committees?
11:02:54
Yeah.
11:02:54
So nutrition committees, from my understanding, have actually been fairly difficult for schools to sustain.
11:03:02
They there is not dedicated funding for their or there hasn't been in the past dedicated funding for their capacity.
11:03:12
And even when there is dedicated funding for their, like, materials or activities, it's been hard for schools' principal it winds up falling on the principals or the assistant principals.
11:03:26
It's been hard for them to identify a point person to cover those pieces.
11:03:32
However, with the new food education grants and the different iterations thereof, for the past couple of years, some of that work has shifted.
11:03:41
Some schools have elected to shift some of that the weight of that work over to their food education partners, and I know that it has gone well when they have been able to do that.
11:03:54
So they need the capacity to be able to do it, and some of the capacity can certainly come from food education organizations that are providing the experiential work in the schools currently, and then that is really successful.