Changing the Way American Feeds Its Kids…One Meal at a Time
By Brian Halweil, on Ann Cooper

Slow (The official journal of the Slow Food movement)

August 2004

Ann Cooper, the renegade chef of the Ross School in East Hampton, New York, declares with complete seriousness that she is on a crusade to change the way America feeds its children. At a time when more and more American kids are clinically obese and school districts are abrogating food service to Pepsi and Taco Bell, most Americans would, at the very least, consider her lunches out of the ordinary.

Everything is made from scratch and built around what foods are local and in-season from Long Island farms and fisheries. On a recent day in late September, the kitchen staff was serving up sautéed broccoli raab, spaghetti squash, rice, an eggplant, tomato, olive caponata, peanut butter noodles, braised tofu, scallops and Orrechiette, Tuscan bean soup, black bean chilaquiles with green chile sauce and creme fraiche, brick-oven pizza, cauliflower and potato chapattis with rita, miso soup, assorted salads, a sandwich bar, and bread pudding. Dubbed the Café by students, the atmosphere is pleasant and the children are civil: they follow Oriental tradition by donning soft slippers and dine on china with silverware and cloth napkins.

To keep an operation that serves 1300 meals each day going during the winter, the kitchen staff also dries, freezes, and otherwise preserves much of the excess harvest. Among other things, the frozen food cache will contain 400 pounds of peppers, 200 pounds of tomato sauce, 37 pounds of eggplant puree, 200 pounds of corn, a couple of dozen pounds of edamame (Yes, soybeans show up in the cafeteria.), 260 pounds of asparagus, 250 pounds of blackberry, 140 pounds of strawberries, 150 pounds of peaches, 70 pounds of nectarines, six quarts of nectarine water, five pounds of basil, and an unspecified quantity of peas and string beans.

The Ross crew also slices and dries about 360 pounds of Beefsteak tomatoes, and stores 400 pounds of beets, nearly 2000 pounds of carrots, 200 pounds of green cabbage (and 100 pounds of the red kind), 600 pounds of celery root, 260 pounds of Chinese rose radish, 325 pounds of rutabega, and 400 pounds of turnips. “Root veggies are very practical,” Cooper says. “You don’t have to freeze them. You don’t have to touch them until you are ready to use them.” Ross often contracts with farmers at the beginning of season, and consistently purchases large quantities of produce, including after the flows of summer tourist have tapered while farms are still flush from the fall harvest. In the words of one local farmer, the school has become “our best friend.”

 The labor-intensive work seems justified in the dark of winter when corn chowder or tomato soup or berry muffins burst with flavor and color from months past. (Most schools deal only with prepackaged, processed foods that are reheated, fried, or simply unwrapped before serving.)

 The menu has other benefits. A joint-study by the Harvard Medical School and the Centers for Disease Control found that Ross students are eating substantially better than typical American kids, including meals with less fat, sugar, and salt, more fiber and antioxidants, and twice the fruits and veggies. Urine samples from students contained considerably less of 11 organophosphates pesticides than a control group. And three-quarters of parents have been inspired to change the way they cook at home.

 Ross is providing meals for a nearby public school, and dozens of other schools have sought Cooper’s advice. The New York City school district, the largest in the country, has asked Cooper to “reprocess” fourteen of its top recipes to include healthier ingredients and more food from the Northeast.

Cooper estimated the cost per student per day—for breakfast, lunch and snacks and all-day beverages—is less than $4. That may not sound like much, but the federal government only spends $2.25. Still, she believes that any school budget leaves room for improvement. Cooper recently resigned from Ross in order to “take this model to the nation.” “Why is someone’s long term health less important than trigonometry?,” she asks. “We’re mortgaging our children’s lives because we can’t figure out a way to pay for their meals.”