New Haven's lunchroom workers have a long history of cooking for the city's schoolchildren. Here' workers prepare a special meal for Thanksgiving in 1982.

Today, New Haven Public School (NHPS) cafeteria workers—members of UNITE HERE Local 217—released a report that underscores the need to bring back fresh cooked food to our schools. Entitled “Healthy Kids First: Why cafeteria workers want to cook fresh meals in New Haven Public Schools,” the report is the result of extensive surveys of frontline cafeteria workers and argues that the only way to save New Haven’s declining food service program is for NHPS to make a commitment to fresh cooking.

Since 1995, the City of New Haven has rebuilt or renovated over 35 schools, many with excellent cooking facilities. Yet, just over a third of our public schools currently serve fresh cooked meals to students. Most schools are “satellite” kitchens, meaning that they receive food prepared at our Central Kitchen, which is “blast chilled” to a temperature just above freezing, then delivered cold. In a survey of 110 cafeteria workers conducted in February and March of 2013, 99% of workers say that in schools that have kitchens, kids should receive freshly cooked meals, and 87% percent believe that children prefer freshly cooked food.

The report calls on New Haven Public Schools put “Healthy Kids First,” by investing in workers’ potential. It argues that more students will choose to eat fresh cooked food, which will improve both their health and the fiscal viability of our school food program. Fresh cooking will also provide valuable professional training for workers. Betty Alford, who has 21 years of experience cooking in NHPS cafeterias explains, “I learned to cook fresh food as I came up in the system, food that kids and teachers wanted to eat. I want young women to have the opportunities I had. We need more cooks!”

Cafeteria workers stand ready to work with NHPS in implementing the changes that need to be made to repair a system in crisis. Their recommendations include a commitment from NHPS to avoid replacing cooked food with frozen food and to use the kitchens in our beautiful new schools for what they were intended: cooking, not just reheating food.

The City of New Haven began to invest in fresh cooking when it built kitchens in nearly every school. Now the Board of Education and the community of New Haven face a choice. Do they stop there, with kitchens, but no cooks? Or do they choose to move forward and take on the challenge of bringing fresh cooking back to our schools?  For New Haven lunchroom workers and parents, the choice is clear: Let’s Cook!

Read the full report, “Healthy Kids First: Why cafeteria workers want to cook fresh meals in New Haven Public Schools!”

Their campaign is particularly relevant to the ongoing discussion of the role of workers in the sustainable food movement.  Pomona’s dining services are self-operated, and the college prides itself on sustainability, committing itself to purchasing cage-free eggs, local and organic produce, and fair trade coffee and teas.  Over the years, cafeteria workers have committed themselves—and cooking skills
honed by years of experience in the kitchen—to ensuring the success of this program, even participating in two events celebrating Food Day, a national celebration and movement for healthy, sustainable and affordable food.  Just last week, Rolando Araiza was
recognized for his work as a worker leader with one of Real Food Challenge’s 2013 Real Food Awards.

Though their road to winning a union was long, their victory sends a powerful message for the rest of the food movement: justice for food workers is an integral piece of our struggle.  It’s time to finally ensure that fair treatment for those men and women who harvest, prep, cook and serveour food is mentioned in the same breath as animal rights, local, sustainable and organic, and we’re well on the way to making this new definition a reality.

In the words of worker Benny Avina, a catering chef at Pomona who has been on the job for 27 years, “For three years, we’ve fought what sometimes felt like an uphill battle. Today, we overcame all of those obstacles when we said yes.”

Real Food Real Jobs is happy to welcome the workers from Pomona College to Unite Here, and proud to continue our work in solidarity with workers at Pomona and elsewhere for a more just food system.

¡Sí se pudo!

Sign the petition today!

On March 1, 2010 dining hall workers at Pomona College delivered petitions—signed by over 90%  of their coworkers—requesting the freedom to choose to form a union without intimidation or interference from the college.  Three years later, this April 30th, those workers will finally have the opportunity to vote on union recognition.

For workers at Pomona, the road to the vote has not been without its challenges.    They have remained strong despite anti-union comments on the part of Pomona president David Oxtoby, successfully fought against a college-instituted gag rule that effectively banned workers from speaking with students in dining halls, and refused to back down even after the college fired 17 workers (16 of them from the dining hall) after an unwarranted immigration investigation.  Over the years, the Pomona College community—including professors, students and alumni—have all done their part to stand behind and support the workers in their fight.

In the three years since this campaign began, workers at 18 other college and university cafeterias have won union representation with Unite Here.  The workers at Pomona finally have their chance to decide, but there may still be obstacles in their path, as the college administration might hold mandatory meetings about unionization or file objections to the election’s outcome which could potentially delay a final decision for years after the vote.

This decision should be the workers’, and the workers’ alone. Stand with them today by signing a petition to President Oxtoby, and call on Pomona College not to interfere with their election and to abide by the final results of the vote!

Sign the petition today!

Just weeks after food service workers at O’Hare Airport released “Putting Sustainability on the Table: Airport Workers’ Vision for $3 Billion of Food and Drink at O’Hare”—a report in which they made recommendations to the City of Chicago on sustainable food concessions at the country’s second-busiest airport—the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) has announced a new Green Concessions Policy.

The Green Concessions Policy advances the CDA’s sustainability program by requiring concessionaires to focus on the use of renewable resources in consumer packaging, disposable utensils, cleaning products, trash bags, and food. It also includes requirements around recycling and donating surplus food—two sustainable practices highlighted by workers in their recommendations to the City. The Green Concessions Policy is an exciting step towards sustainable food practices at the airport and workers are encouraged by the CDA’s demonstrated commitment to these issues.

Chris Williams, a server at Wicker Park Sushi said, “I think policies like requiring sustainable foods and donating surplus food items to local charities will help a lot of people. It’s also good to see the city listening to the people who really drive the airport, the people who work there.”

As the City of Chicago and CDA prepare to set guidelines for companies interested in providing food service at O’Hare Airport, workers are calling on the City to ensure that those guidelines include sustainable food practices by way of scratch-cooking concepts; healthy, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options; locally grown produce; eco-friendly waste disposal methods; food donation; and job stability and training opportunities for current food service workers.

The CDA is already positioned as a leader on airport sustainability with programs like an on-site aeroponic garden and eight acres of vegetated green roofs at O’Hare, but the introduction of the Green Concessions Policy indicates the City is ready to incorporate sustainable food practices at the airport. HMS Host, the current food service provider at O’Hare, has set a great example with restaurants like Tortas Frontera and Wicker Park Sushi, both of which use herbs grown in the aeroponic garden and prepare food made with fresh ingredients. Food service workers, as the experts on food and passengers at O’Hare, are excited to be a part of the airport’s sustainable future!

O'Hare concessions workers at an event at the Chicago Department of Aviation, March 12, 2013.

The Green Concessions Policy will go into effect in June 2013 and fortunately for the City, it won’t need to reinvent the wheel to make it work—at least from a worker training perspective. In Los Angeles, airport workers and concessionaires at LAX are spreading the word of a smooth food service transition during the airport’s ongoing massive redevelopment. What used to be a “culinary wasteland,” LAX is on track to becoming a real foodie destination with the inclusion of high-end restaurants and local favorites that will open in the airport this year. As part of this redevelopment, the City of Los Angeles invested in culinary training for existing LAX airport food service workers.  As a result, LAX now has 48 new cooks, sauciers, and culinary artists.

“I’ve been working in the food industry for decades, but I never thought I’d get the opportunity to go back to school and learn new skills,” former fast food worker Valencia Crain said after participating in the rigorous training program. “Now, I can sous-vide pork chops and make hollandaise from scratch. I feel very proud.”

The success at LAX offers insight into what a successful food service transition can look like, and the Green Concessions Policy is an encouraging glimpse of what could lie ahead for the City of Chicago.  In the meantime, food service workers at O’Hare will continue to advocate for their recommendations on the future of food – and sustainability – at their airport.

Real Food Real Jobs’ Claire Tinley had the opportunity to present our recently-released report, “Putting Sustainability on the Table: Airport Workers’ Vision for $3 Billion of Food and Drink at O’Hare,” in which airport concessions workers shared their own recommendations for the future of food at the airport.  Their vision includes fresh, local and sustainable fare prepared from scratch, and a commitment from the city to invest in airport workers, some of whom have over 30 years on the job!

As we’ve learned in the weeks since the report was released, many passengers are more than happy to talk about their experiences and expectations of food at the airport, and our experience at the Summit was no different.  One frequent flyer had a simple request when it comes to fresh fruit at the airport: more variety!  If airports can provide Red Delicious apples and navel oranges, then why not a Pink Lady apple, or a pear?  The discussion also made its way to Twitter, where followers shared their own ideas for good food at the airport:

You can be a part of the discussion, too!  Click here to fill out a short survey about what food options you’d like to see at the airport.

Over the course of the evening, presenters spoke to the pleasures of eating good food and the value of protecting the environment that provides us with a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Many of them also spoke to the necessity of working for justice in the food system, and the sobering reality that cost is a very real barrier for families wanting to cook real food.  Perhaps presenter Seelah Muhammad summarized it best: if we want to truly transform the food system, then we need to include “race, place and power” in our discussions.  Yesterday at the Summit, it was clear that there is still much work left to be done, but also inspiring to see so many individuals and organizations committed to doing that work.

Many thanks to Food Tank (and its co-founder Danielle Nierenberg) for hosting the Summit!  Visit their website over the next several days for a recording of and interviews from the event, and check out some of the great dialogue during the event on Twitter by searching the hashtags #ChangeDinner and #ChangeFood.

Addressing the interests of a growing student food movement, Sodexo provides a larger window on the sources of the foods they provide on campus

Gaithersburg, Md. April 4, 2013 — Amidst growing demands from college students for university leadership in sustainable, local food systems, today Sodexo, a leader in Quality of Life Services, and the Real Food Challenge, the largest student food justice organization in the nation, jointly announced an agreement that advances supply chain transparency on Sodexo-contracted campuses.

The agreement puts in place a rigorous and comprehensive set of standards, defined by the Real Food Calculator, for judging the social responsibility and sustainability of Sodexo’s vendors and food producers. The assessment tool, developed by Real Food Challenge student researchers and associated food experts, lays out four key criteria areas for evaluating ‘real food’ – local & community-based, fair, ecologically sound and humane.  By using the Real Food Calculator standards, Sodexo aligns itself with the most progressive metric for institutional food service.

The agreement further sets up a process for students to collaborate with Sodexo managers, collecting and analyzing purchasing data using the Real Food Calculator’s web-based application and tracking tool. The resulting statistics will be used to demonstrate actual purchases of ‘real food’ and new opportunities for increasing them.

With the Real Food Calculator, Sodexo will provide an unprecedented level of access and information for students and universities—allowing them to better advance their real food goals.  It also demonstrates Sodexo’s collaborative approach in addressing the interests of a growing student food movement and supporting academic inquiry into institutional food systems.

“Transparency and sustainability go hand-in-hand. Increasing transparency is something we want to model for this generation of interested consumers and for our industry. Working with the Real Food Challenge is great way to do just that,”  said Sodexo spokesperson, Stephen Cox.

After three years of pilot testing, the release of the Real Food Calculator represents an exciting innovation in the field of institutional food systems and sustainability. Food service professionals and interested consumers—be they in the higher education, healthcare or the corporate sector—now have the ability to perform detailed assessments of the food in their cafeterias and see their ‘real food’ purchasing grow over time.

Determined to positively impact local communities and protect the environment, Sodexo and Real Food Challenge are fully committed to promoting and advancing a more sustainable and transparent food system. One of the ways that Sodexo meets its sustainability is through purchasing commitments toward sustainable seafood, cage free eggs, and through broader partnerships with organizations like Real Food Challenge. For its part, Real Food Challenge is campaigning to see more college presidents sign its Real Food Campus Commitment – a pledge to meet ambitious real food purchasing targets. Ten university leaders, including Macalester College, Oberlin College and University of Vermont, have recently signed on.

“We are happy to work with Sodexo to increase transparency and accountability in our food system,” said Anim Steel, Executive Director of Real Food Challenge.  “Building a truly just and sustainable food system requires a real respect for the rights and needs of this younger generation and a real commitment to transparency all along the supply chain – from seed to plate.  Together, we can lead the food industry away from a model driven exclusively by profit, secrecy and the factory farm, and towards a one based on respect for human rights, the environment, and the health of our children for generations to come.”

Visit Sodexo on Facebook and follow on Twitter

Visit Real Food Challenge on Facebook and follow on Twitter

Sodexo in North America

Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Life Services company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On-site Services in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $17 million in grants to end childhood hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at blogs.sodexousa.com.

Real Food Challenge

Real Food Challenge (www.realfoodchallenge.org) is a national student organization dedicated to building a just and sustainable food system.  The Real Food Challenge networks spans 300+ college and university campus across the United States. Since its founding in 2008, the campaign’s primary goal has been to shift $1 billion in existing food spending by college and universities away from industrial agriculture and junk food and towards local, fair, ecologically sound, and humanely produced food – ‘real food.’  To date, Real Food Challenge campaigns have won over $50 million in real food purchasing commitments from leading colleges and universities. More on the Real Food Calculator can be found here.

Lesley University Cambridge, Mass. “In Haiti, we say ‘L’Union fair la force’ — stick together, and you’ve got power.” — cook Andre Lucas Just one day after presenting a petition signed by hundreds of students, faculty members, staff and alumni to university management, Lesley’s 79 dishwashers, servers, cashiers and cooks won their union recognition. They join a growing movement of food workers across the Boston area.

St. Mary’s College of California Moraga, Calif. “The workers are proof that it is necessary to stand up for ourselves, that we are stronger when we are united, and that nothing is impossible.” — student Ariana Alvarez Food workers at St. Mary’s College serve on-campus meals to both students and Lasallian Christian brothers, and counted on the support of both these groups — along with professors, alumni, clergy and community allies — during their organizing campaign. The workers’ victory stands in line with the college’s Lasallian Catholic mission, which includes a commitment to social justice and respect for all persons.

University of La Verne La Verne, Calif. “Words cannot describe the tremendous amounts of joy and sense of victory we feel – this is only the beginning of a new and prosperous year, and it’s now only going to get better. ¡Si se pudo!” — cook Eddie Briones Late last year, we profiled workers at La Verne, who were standing up to create their own sustainable future. Organizing with a vision of a campus food program that would allow them to serve healthy, good food prepared from scratch, workers united with the support of both faculty and students. In the words of cook Prince Jones, workers feel they now have “a fighting chance at a future.”

Welcome to Unite Here!!

LAX Culinary Training Program

Well, before long, travelers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) won’t face this frustrating predicament any longer.  As part of a major $4.11 billion renovation, the airport is moving beyond the traditional fast food options, adding local gourmet restaurants serving fresh, sustainable food to the terminals.  LA foodie favorites like Larder at Tavern, Cole’s, Ford’s Filling Station, and Campanile will soon open their doors in LAX’s Terminal 4 and Bradley Terminal.  Behind the counters and in the kitchens of these eateries will be food service workers from UNITE HERE Local 11.

The new food program provided an opportunity for the airport’s food workers’ to advance their own kitchen skills, so UNITE HERE helped develop a training program to help them make the transition from burger-flipping to high-end fresh food preparation.  Forty-eight workers enrolled in the first session of the training program earlier this year, attending classes eight hours a day, five days a week, for two months.

LAX Culinary Training Program

After spending years reheating and frying, many workers are now cooking highly complex meals from scratch. Valencia Crain, a training graduate who has worked at various fast food restaurants at LAX for six years, said, “I loved the class.  It helped me in so many ways. Before I couldn’t cook like this…now I can sous-vide pork chops and make hollandaise from scratch. I feel very proud.”

Through the training, workers moved from rudimentary knowledge of basic food handling skills – like assembling burritos from pre-processed ingredients – to high-level training in gourmet cooking.  The training was intensive and thorough, preparing workers to cook high-quality meals in a fast-paced environment.  Crain says, “We had fun with it. We practiced making entrees like we were actually on a line in the kitchen, and we had to get them done by a certain time. And every day we ate what we cooked, so we had to put our best foot forward. That was lunch!”

The skills workers learned in the program are changing not only their experience on the job, but also the way they cook for their families at home.  Crain explains the program’s impact on her family’s eating habits: “The training has totally given me a new relationship with food.  Even little things like how to make your own broth.   There are things I used to buy from a can, that I no longer do because I learned how to make it from scratch in the class.  My son loves my cooking now.”

Graduation!

The program’s first class of 48 students graduated earlier this month. At their graduation, the new chefs were joined by a group of Los Angeles’ leading restaurateurs and celebrity chefs, whose establishments will be among those that open at the terminals later this year.  Mark Peel, owner of Campanile and former fry-cook himself, said that worker training is essential to revamping the food options at LAX.

“I am thrilled that Campanile will be at LAX helping to represent the great quality and diversity that is our town,” said Peel. “I have watched these graduating culinary students in action, and I am very impressed by their enthusiasm and commitment. This program is a model for the way unions and businesses should work together.”

"This program is a model for the way unions and businesses should work together." - Chef Mark Peel, Campanile

The LAX Culinary Training Program training program was operated with funding through a Los Angeles City Grant for $225,000, by the Hospitality Training Academy, a non-profit labor-management trust, which brought together labor, business, Work Source Center partners, and the Los Angeles Trade Technical College. LA Trade Tech and HMS Host developed the culinary curriculum to meet the needs of the new restaurants. The training took place at the HMS Host’s LAX commissary, and was taught by instructors from LATTC and HTA.

Following on the heels of the new graduates, the next group of training program students began classes last week, preparing to join workers like Crain in leading the sustainability transformation at LAX and beyond.

Interested in food at O’Hare airport as well?  Check out our new report, “Putting Sustainability on the Table: Airport Workers’ Vision for $3 billion of Food and Drink at O’Hare” and take our survey about what YOU would like to see O’Hare’s upcoming food redevelopment!

From its ubiquitous hot dogs (hold the ketchup!) to five-star restaurants, Chicago is a culinary destination, and people travel from across the country to experience the gastronomic delights that the Windy City has to offer. Many of those individuals pass through O’Hare Airport — the second-largest airport in the country — on their way to one or many of the eateries that call Chicago home.

If the city is a gathering place for foodies, then why not make its largest airport a destination in itself? That’s precisely the suggestion of O’Hare’s food and beverage workers. Very soon, the city will set guidelines for companies interested in managing future concessions operations at O’Hare, and who better to help shape the new menu than its workers? Their vision includes fresh, local and sustainable fare prepared from scratch by the people who know O’Hare and its passengers best: airport workers, some of whom have over 30 years of experience on the job. Their recommentations are:

By following these recommendations, O’Hare can build upon its current sustainability efforts — which include the cultivation of an on-site hydroponic garden that provides ingredients for several of its restaurants — to become a model example of a major city airport that is taking concrete steps towards creating a better, more sustainable traveling experience for passengers and airport workers alike.

To learn more, read their full report, “Putting Sustainability on the Table: Airport Workers’ Vision for $3 Billion of Food and Drink at O’Hare”!

What’s on the menu at O’Hare has yet to be decided, and you can add your own voice!

In “Putting Sustainability on the Table,” airport workers shared their recommendations for the soon-to-be-changing menu at O’Hare Airport. Now it’s your turn! What kind of food would you like to see (and eat!) at the Airport?

Let us know by taking our quick survey here:
http://www.realfoodrealjobs.org/oharesurvey