School Food FOCUS 2011 annual report

Annual Report 2011

Mission

School Food FOCUS is a national collaborative that leverages the knowledge and procure-ment power of large school districts to make school meals across the country more healthful, regionally sourced, and sustainably produced. FOCUS aims to transform food systems to support students’ academic achievement and lifelong health, while directly benefiting farmers, regional economies, and the environment.

Vision

By 2020, all children have equal access to healthful and delicious school meals, providing them a greater opportunity to achieve academic success and become vital members of the community. FOCUS leaders champion policies that support school meals as an integral part of public education, a major force toward ending child hunger, and an essential avenue toward a more just, equitable society.

Strategy

To accomplish its mission and vision, FOCUS leverages productive partnerships and empha-sizes three core approaches:

A communications strategy that promotes school food successes,

the value of school meals, and the ongoing need for

food system change

Market-based school food procurement strategies to increase the depth and breadth of change, shift supply chains, and raise

industry standards

A policy advocacy path that influences procurement policy development and

program implementation

Douglas County School District, Colorado

• SCHOOL FOOD FOCUS 2011 AnnuAl RepoRt 2

Letter from the Executive Director

L ooking back on 2011, it’s clear that School Food FOCUS has grown by leaps and bounds. We’ve sprouted from a small group of stakeholders with a vision to where we are today – 33

districts strong across the country representing millions of children, three innovative Learning Labs under our belt with a multitude of exciting accomplishments in each, a robust learning network of school food service professionals and their partners, a permanent home at Public Health Solutions, and a budget that’s more diversified in its funding and steadily growing.

In this past year alone, not only have we expanded in the number and volume of member districts and other participants in our collaborative, we have also laid groundwork with power-ful, knowledgeable allies to make way for major growth in the years to come. Our relationships with colleagues at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the meticulous preparations we’re making to launch our first regional, multi-district Learning Lab in the Upper Midwest, and the establishment of our Leadership Council have excited and encouraged us to keep striving for what’s right – a more healthful, regional, sustainable future for school meals.

We have been clear from the outset that building a multi-sector collaborative to reach our twin goals of supporting children’s health and the health of our food system is no simple task. Together we’re making it happen, thanks to the openness and hard work of our primary stake-holders – our participating school districts and their organizational partners. As we continue to grow, it has also become clear that teaming up in strategic ways with industry and with labor across the school food supply chain is necessary if we are to improve the quality of school meals. As it has in the past, re-setting the table in these ways will bring new challenges.

It is with equal parts gratitude and excitement that FOCUS approaches the year to come, taking our beginnings to the next level of our journey. The following pages will give you a sense

of why we believe this is possible. Enjoy!

Toni Liquori, Executive Director

Chicago Public Schools

Source: USDA


FOCUS Stakeholders: Our Core Constituency

T he stakeholders of School Food FOCUS, representatives of our member school districts and each district’s partners, are our main audience. With and for them, we create and

share content so they can learn from our work in the Learning Labs as well as from the methods and strategies employed nationwide by FOCUS districts. They’re the leaders the FOCUS team turns to for input on policy direction, prioritizing unmet educational and informational needs, workshop content, and more.

We facilitate the learning process through chats, calls, email discussion groups, webinars and face-to-face gatherings of all sizes so that innovation spreads, empowering school nutrition professionals nationwide to make changes big and small – improving the health and wellbe-ing of the children most in need of more wholesome meals.

Some of the new partnering organizations of school districts we’ve brought into the FOCUS fold this year include the Colorado Chefs Association (Douglas County [CO] School District), the Florida Farm to School Alliance (Miami-Dade County Public Schools), Royal Food Service (Cobb County [GA] School District), Detroit Eastern Market (Detroit Public Schools), Boston Public Health Commission (Boston Public Schools), and Center for Resil-ient Cities (Milwaukee Public Schools). Even from this small sampling, it’s clear how diverse the school district partners really are – and the immense value they bring to FOCUS.

FOCUS districts and their partners have made so many great things happen in 2011. Seattle Public Schools is working closely with its trusted produce vendor to bring in new, locally grown – and in some cases, even organic – fruits and vegetables for its menus. Houston Independent School District is implementing salad bars and school gardens with the help of its partner CAN DO Houston, and creating recipes to cook from scratch in their central kitchen. Greenville County (SC) Schools is working with its partner Piedmont Health Care Foundation to fund and organize culinary training for its kitchen staff. And in Omaha Public Schools, staff collaborated with their counterparts at district partner Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition to develop a regionally grown produce RFP, bringing in heaps of fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables for students.

= PARTICIPATING DISTRICT

= PARTICIPATING DISTRICT WITH OVER 100,000 STUDENTS

FOCUS district total students=

4,238,173

68%FOCUS District

Average

51%U.S. Average*

U.S. School Children Eligible for Free or Reduced Meals

FOCUS helps the children most in need

FOCUS works with many of the nation’s largest school districts

*Source: USDA FNS


After months of research, CPS made a pioneering shift to scratch-cooked chicken in all schools

equipped with full kitchens. With facilitation from FOCUS, the district was able to arrange

with USDA Foods a purchase of fresh-frozen raw commodity chicken at a scale previously

unheard of in the world of school food. An even larger, open-market purchase of raw chicken,

locally grown without antibiotics, was negotiated with help from Whole Foods. Thanks to

these Lab-supported landmark purchases by Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality (CTH),

children in the 457 schools served by CTH will enjoy wholesome, additive-free chicken three

times per month for the rest of the 2011-2012 school year.

CPS Lab outcomes to date:

•Purchases of 1.8 million pounds of fresh-frozen chicken for the 2011-12 school year: 600,000

pounds direct from USDA Foods and 1.2 million pounds grown without antibiotics on Indiana

Amish farms.

•Training in safe handling and scratch cooking of raw poultry

for union staff in 457 school kitchens.

•New chicken recipes include TV personality and

celebrity chef Rachael Ray’s “Windy City Chicken.”

•HHIF/FOCUS “Purchasing Guidelines That

Minimize Antibiotic Use in Poultry Production:

Recommendations for Schools and Other

Institutional Food Service Buyers”

include an RFP template.

•Five new cereals,

custom-formulated to meet

CPS specifications for lower

sugar and higher fiber, are

being sourced from a mid-size

manufacturer that is new to

school food service.

•Replacement of conventional

processed sliced commodity

cheese with a new, lower-sodium

formulation, also available

through USDA Foods.

Learning Lab: Major Accomplishments in FOCUS’ Signature Program

The School Food Learning Lab is a core FOCUS program: the place where FOCUS engages most

concretely with school districts on the day-to-day business of buying and preparing food. The

desired outcome is participatory research-based innovation in school food purchasing – achieved

through collaboration not only with the school district, its local partners, and FOCUS staff, but

also partners from Michigan State University and the University of California, Davis – that has been

shown to work: real practices that have local, regional, and national impact.

To date, the Lab has carried out its mission in three FOCUS school districts, beginning with Saint Paul and Denver. The third Lab, nearing completion in Chicago, is a significant “scale up” from the two previous, from tens of thousands of meals per day to hundreds of thousands. Together, the three Labs have paved the way for a multi-district regional Learning Lab that will be launched in the upper Midwest in 2012. The larger project, initially funded through a challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation, will build upon methods pioneered by the single-district pilots.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest district in the nation, deliberately selected its Lab goals with an eye to effecting change nationwide: lower-sugar, higher fiber breakfast cereal; lower sodium cheese; and cleaner label chicken. All three goals were chosen to support an ambitious five-year menu-reform plan that calls for dramatic reduction in sodium, fat, and sugar, and stronger emphasis on produce and other whole, fiber-rich foods.

The Learning Lab team was also asked to investigate the potential for sourcing chicken raised without antibiotics. The routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock that are not sick – using them unnecessarily for growth promotion and preventing illness – can cause harmful bacteria to develop resistance to drugs, undermining the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotic medica-tions and leaving children especially vulnerable.

This work advanced considerably when the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Agriculture (HHIF) joined the project in early 2011. Over time, the larger goal for chicken became a standard for schools that is both healthier on the plate – whole muscle, lower sodium, fewer additives – and in the environment, in which antibiotics are used minimally, safely, and sustainably on the farm. Together, FOCUS and HHIF developed poultry purchasing guidelines for institutions and a Request for Proposals (RFP) template that any school district can adapt for its own use.


Strengthening Organizational Capacity and Diversifying Our Base of Support

T he FOCUS collaborative has grown over the past year to 33 large school districts (nearly all

with 40,000 or more students enrolled), representing about 4.3 million children, and has

engaged additional key partners from across the country. This increase in our numbers is proof

that word is spreading in the school food world about the benefits of a national collaborative with

the capacity not only to investigate, implement, and evaluate procurement innovation, but also

to explore new and user-friendly ways for getting critical information and resources out to the

wider community.

Perhaps even more exhilarating are the strides FOCUS made in 2011 in building our or-

ganizational capacity to ensure that this important, visionary work will continue for years

to come. In January 2011, FOCUS became a core program of Public Health Solutions,

the nation’s largest public health institute, which is regarded as having one of the most

innovative, comprehensive non-profit portfolios of public health initiatives in the country.

Serving more than 200,000 individuals and families a year with an annual budget of over

$217 million, Public Health Solutions represents the ideal organizational home for FOCUS.

Not only has our administrative and fiscal capacity grown exponentially, giving us the time

and energy we need to devote to programming, we also have a committed senior leadership

team and support staff who are steadfast in helping us realize our strategic vision, especially

as this relates to FOCUS’ role in the larger world of public health.

In addition, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded FOCUS a one-time planning grant

in 2011 to support strategic planning for our next phase as well as the development of

the FOCUS Leadership Council. As FOCUS began the recruitment process, we felt very

strongly that the Council’s roster be as diverse as possible, with members representing school

districts and their partners, food service management companies, vendors, processors,

scholars, and key officials from the USDA and CDC who will continue to lend critical

mentorship and guidance in the coming years. This strategy was about breaking down bar-

riers that too often exist in school food work – getting out of our respective silos to achieve

enduring food procurement change and improve the health of children. We were successful

in bringing such a group together [see page 10] and we’re confident that our plan for change

– the seeds for which were planted at an Inaugural Meeting in December in Atlanta – is both

ambitious and achievable!

Saint Paul Public Schools

Source: USDA


Collaboration with CDC

While at an earlier stage than our collaborations with USDA, the past year has provided multiple opportunities to begin working side by side on school food issues as CDC teams up with like-minded organizations. In May, CDC convened multiple groups, including the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Public Health Law & Policy, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, and others in Washington DC for Healthy Farms, Healthy People: A Farm and Food Policy Summit for a Strong America. Toni Liquori and Thomas Forster were in attendance, with Toni presenting FOCUS work in a session on promoting and strengthening the economic viability of local and regional food systems.

The Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! childhood obesity prevention effort coordinated by the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, was featured prominently at our 2011 National Gathering. Its signature salad bar, filled to the brim with fresh, locally-sourced healthy fruits and vegetables, was a popular component of our School Food Showcase.

Through the CDC’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program – a locally driven initiative sup-porting 50 communities nationwide to tackle obesity and tobacco use – FOCUS has partnered with the New York City Department of Health to mentor school districts and their local health departments, sharing knowledge, tactics, and tips for trans-forming school food.

We look forward to working even more

closely with CDC in the coming months.

Legislative policy analysis and education

In addition to “behind the scenes” administrative policy work with USDA, the Policy Working Group, made up of FOCUS staff, core stake-holders, and fellow good food advocates also kept the broader FOCUS circle updated on the progress of implementing the

Policy: Partnerships, collaboration, and education

This past year ushered in stronger partnerships with colleagues in USDA and CDC, as exempli-

fied by the significant delegations of seven USDA representatives and four CDC representatives

participating in our 2011 National Gathering – as speakers, resource people, and panelists in both

plenary and breakout sessions. By thoughtfully collecting stakeholder input to form “ground-truth”

recommendations, in 2011 FOCUS continued to shape federal programs and policy to address

large district needs, amplifying our voices as our stakeholders advocate for their own interests

alongside FOCUS and other allies.

Collaboration with USDA

Our work with USDA agencies – primarily Food and Nutrition Services, Agricultural Marketing Service, and Rural Development – has become deeper as well as broader in scope.

With colleagues at USDA Foods, an important division of USDA through which institu-tions participating in the National School Lunch Program receive a significant portion of their food, FOCUS has developed a series of lessons that explain how USDA Foods works, outlining challenges and practical ways districts can make the most of this vital resource. FOCUS has ensured frank stakeholder input on the implementation and evaluation of new USDA pilot projects in Michigan and Florida that will allow districts more flexibility in using USDA Foods funds for fresh fruits and vegetables. Additionally, FOCUS facilitated the process of procuring fresh frozen, whole-muscle chicken leg quarters through USDA Foods to be served in Chicago Public Schools.

The FOCUS Policy Team tapped the expertise of our stakeholders to begin compiling a wide range of model specifications and best practices regarding processed entrees and minimally processed fruits and vegetables – a valuable service to school districts and to the USDA as they prepare to meet the new meal pattern and food standards in the 2010 Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act (CNR).

FOCUS also advocated successfully for the needs of school food systems to be included in the further study and expansion of regional food hubs – an emerging concept with plenty of room for districts to play a key part in rebuilding regional food systems – and has engaged with USDA to make Rural Development funding accessible to urban school districts in-volved in strengthening rural food supply chains.


Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, providing opportunities for stakeholders to submit their own input on related rules and regulations. The Policy Team submitted stakeholder com-ments on proposed nutrition standards, and arranged for FOCUS school food professionals to share their perspectives directly with organizational allies such as the National Farm to School Network, Community Food Security Coalition, and members of the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity.

In April 2011, the USDA issued a final rule clarifying that school districts may indicate “geographic preference” (GP) for unprocessed and minimally processed locally grown and raised agricultural products in their purchases under the Child Nutrition Programs, includ-ing the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program. As school districts across the country look to apply GP, School Food FOCUS engaged the Harrison Institute for Public Law at the Georgetown University Law Center to examine how the federal law interacts with state and local procurement regulations already in place. Harrison and FOCUS have crafted guidance for districts in the form of a GP policy rationale and template language for districts to develop Requests for Proposal (RFPs) and bids compliant with the new rule.

With the Farm Bill looming near on the horizon, the Policy Team, together with FOCUS stakeholders and allies, is developing a comprehensive platform for stakeholders’ voices and recommendations to be heard.

2011 National Gathering

“We’re very optimistic that we can really impact change locally and nationally for the health

of our kids.” – School food service professional and attendee at the 2011 National

Gathering

Transforming School Food, A National Gathering of Peers & Partners Taking on School Food Change, was held June 2-4th at the Inverness in Denver, Colorado and was FOCUS’ most successful annual event to date. The diverse group of nearly 200 attendees included school food service professionals, school district community partners, FOCUS funders, regional and national allies, producers, vendors, and high-level representatives from both the USDA and CDC, amongst others.

The levels of intensity and energy, and the number of cross-sector working relationships that were established, achieved new heights. We came to Denver ready to create, inspire, innovate, and make change happen – all for the betterment of our environment, our food systems, and, most importantly, our children, society’s future.


Source: USDA


Some highlights of the Gathering:

•A panel in which FOCUS stakeholders and community partners from single-district Learning

Labs (Saint Paul and Denver) and other large districts (Milwaukee and Oakland) shared what

systems level change looks like, including specific procurement innovation victories. Woven

throughout their stories was the vital need for school food service professionals to collaborate with

district partners whose skills and abilities complement their own.

•The School Food Showcase (which doubled in size from 10 exhibitors in 2010 to 20 in 2011)

provided food vendors and school food service professionals a forum to meet face to face,

exchange ideas, taste foods, and learn from one another. As one vendor said, “We were focused

on getting to know people and talking about ‘mega’ child nutrition issues that affect each of us.

It’s great to be in a forum that allows us to contribute some of our knowledge towards making our

industry a better place.”

•A session with senior representatives from USDA and FOCUS stakeholders in which participants

uncovered shared challenges and concerns and strategized about opportunities for collaboration

around model food specification development; user-friendly avenues for disseminating substantive

nutritional information on USDA Foods; and district preferences in the context of labeling (e.g.,

sell by/use by dates and more detailed information about additives).

As Rodney Taylor, Director of Nutrition Services for Riverside Unified School District, so eloquently put in his rousing opening address, the role and responsibility of school food service professionals in safeguarding the health of the nation’s kids has never been clearer than it is today. The problems of childhood obesity and child hunger – so closely related, nearly two sides of the same coin – are both on the rise, and the faltering economy engenders even greater dependence on school food as a major source of nutrition.

FOCUS is already hard at work planning its 2012 National Gathering scheduled for May 3-5 in Chicago We anticipate even greater levels of participation and even more cross-sectorial collaboration in 2012.




Funders and DonorsThe W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The Kresge Foundation

National Gathering sponsors

• ChartwellsThompsonHospitality

• Sodexo

• WallaceCenteratWinrockInternational

• TheColoradoHealthFoundation

• MichiganStateUniversity

• TruittBrothers

National Gathering scholarship donors

• BlueCrossBlueShieldofMinnesota

• CatalystFundofBlueCrossBlueShieldofMassachusettsFoundation

• AbellFoundation

Individual Donors

• KatherineAlaimo

• MargieCarr

• SheilahDavidson

• JaniceDodds

• ChrisDonlay

• PamelaFrechette

• ChristinaFuchs

• PattyGnefkow

• MaryLannon

• GaryLawrence

• NaturalGourmetInstituteforFoodandHealth

• KathleenRiley

• Gilbert&FannieRosenthal

• Thomas&WendyRosenthal

• AllanShapiro

• SandySherman

• ElizabethSolomon

• ArleneSpark&DanielOchs

• TheodoreSpitzer

• JanetStudley

• CarolineWallace

Staff and Leadership Council

Staff

• Toni Liquori, Executive Director

• Kathy Lawrence, Director of Strategic Development

• Inez Sieben, Vice President, Nonprofit Consulting Services and Special Projects,

Public Health Solutions

• Corinna Lohser, Deputy Director, Nonprofit Consulting Services, Public Health

Solutions

• Sheilah Davidson, Policy Program Manager and Stakeholder Liaison

• Laura Stanley, Learning Lab Manager

• Meredith Modzelewski, Communications Manager

• Amy Rosenthal, Research & Operations Manager

• Thomas Forster, Policy Advisor

Leadership Council

• Bob Bloomer, Regional Vice President, Chartwells Thompson Hospitality at Chicago

Public Schools

• Rod Friesen, Director, Market Development, Truitt Brothers, Inc.

• Anne Haddix, Senior Policy Advisor, CDC National Center for Chronic Disease

Prevention and Health Promotion

• Gail Imig, Consultant, C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems, Michigan

State University

• Michelle Markestyn-Radcliffe, Farm to School Program Manager, Oregon

Department of Agriculture

• Allison Mignery, Physical Activity & Nutrition Supervisor, Mecklenberg County

Health Department

• Jan Poppendieck, Professor of Sociology, Hunter College

• Inez Sieben, Vice President, Nonprofit Consulting Services and Special Projects,


• Rodney Taylor, Director, Nutrition Services, Riverside Unified School District

• Janey Thornton, Deputy Under Secretary, USDA Food, Nutrition and

Consumer Services

• Lincoln Yee, President, Asian Food Solutions



Charlotte-Mecklenberg SchoolsPhoto: Allison Mignery Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools

SchoolFoodFOCUS

www.SchoolFoodFOCUS.org@SchoolFoodFOCUS


40 Worth Street, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10013

Tel: (646) 619-6728

Fax: (646) 619-6777

Supported by generous funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and a growing number of sponsors, individuals, and private funders.

School Food FOCUS is a program of Public Health Solutions.

Documents

School Food FOCUS 2011 annual report