City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released a report called FoodWorks, featuring 59 proposals for improving health and sustainability throughout the food chain and throughout the city.

The report was released last week to a packed auditorium in Food and Finance High School Quinn was introduced by an articulate student from Food and Finance, who said his ambition to become a chef had been nurtured by the school’s many programs. In addition to offering internships in the city and study of agriculture abroad through the 4H club, the school, in partnership with Cornell University Cooperative Extension, runs an aquaponics program, growing fish and vegetables in a classroom. (Last summer Cornell announced plans to construct a large rooftop greenhouse at Food and Finance.)

Many of FoodWorks' 59 proposals touched on schools, not surprising as 25% of New York’s children are obese and schools are the fourth most numerous food outlet category in the city, the report notes. <!--more-->

School-related proposals include:

-       Strengthen the Child Nutrition Act, providing more money for improved lunch and breakfast while streamlining the process for qualifying for free lunch.

-       Mandate breakfast in the classroom for all high needs schools. In a recent study New York’s participation in school breakfast ranked second to last among large urban school districts. (Breakfast in the classroom is currently an opt-in program; to sign up, schools should call Keith Graham at 718-707-4523).

-       Expand salad bars in schools. Currently there are fewer than 600 salad bars for our 1,500 schools.

-       Improve the summer meal program, which is served at 300 summer schools as well as other sites.

-       Expand the capacity of schools to cook. Currently only about one-fifth of schools are able to cook meals from scratch on site.

-       Identify alternatives to Styrofoam in schools and other city food programs. Citing the parent-founded organization Styrofoam Out of Schools (SOS), the report says the City Council will co-sponsor a national design challenge for alternative lunch trays.

-       Ensure that garden education is available citywide. The 300 school gardens currently in operation do not meet educational demand, and many teachers are not aware of how to incorporate garden education into their curriculum. Groups that provide garden programming include the Horticulture Society, the Parks Department’s Green Thumb program, and others.

The report’s endnotes cite a number of links to studies and references for looking in greater depth at New York City’s schools and food issues.

Quinn praised the Department of Education for its efforts to buy local food, noting it has spent some $4.5 million in regional food since 2006.