The SchoolFood Plus Initiative is a collaborative, multi-agency effort initially funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 2004. Its goal is to improve the eating habits, health and academic performance of New York City public schoolchildren while strengthening the New York State agricultural economy through the procurement of local, regional produce. The Initiative is based on the principle that school meals programs can enhance student health and academic achievement, and that a multi-tiered effort of government, school, and community involvement is the most effective way to enhance the school food and physical activity environment.

Primary partner agencies in the SchoolFoodPlus Initiative are New York City Department of Education; Office of SchoolFood; New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets; Teachers’ College, Columbia University and FoodChange. The objectives of the SchoolFood Plus Initiative are:

• Introducing newly developed plant-based recipes, in cafeterias city-wide, that utilize foods grown by New York farmers and procured by the NYC public school system.
• Empowering youth to take charge of their own food and health destinies.
• Linking the current NYC school meals reform project to a range of existing community based health promotion activities.

• Institutional Change at the Office of SchoolFood.Fundamental change at the Office of SchoolFood, both in policy and practice, has begun to spread across the city’s schools and includes recipe development, improved nutritional standards, staff training, youth involvement, social marketing and sourcing food from regional farms.
• Local/Regional Procurement.Using the 32 SchoolFood Plus recipes as a foundation, the Department of Agriculture & Markets and FoodChange will work with the Office of School Food to source New York grown products through the New York City public school meals system.
• Coalition Building.SchoolFood Plus has begun to build coalitions with three audiences in mind: 1) state and local policy makers 2) NYC children, parents and communities who depend on the school meals program and 3) urban centers that, across the country, engage in school meal reform.
• Evaluation.The Primary Partner agencies will work with independent evaluators to tell the story of SchoolFood Plus from the perspective of the parents, students, coalition members and others involved, and to analyze the impact of the many changes on children’s eating habits, academic achievement and health, as well as the impact on the New York State agricultural economy.

For more information, contact Margrethe Horlyck-Romanovsky, Assistant Director, Food & Nutrition Services at mhr@foodchange.org.