French Fries are not vegetables. 

That’s the message that Tyshawn Davis, a teacher at IN-Tech Academy, wants to drill into his students. The apples in the school cafeteria sit untouched for days on end, he said, until they’re thrown away.

When asked what vegetables are being served for lunch that day, Davis said both his students — and the cafeteria workers — pointed to the deep fried potatoes.

“There’s no nutrition taught to these kids at all,” he said.
In many neighborhoods in the Bronx, access to fresh fruits and vegetables is often limited to the corner bodega. The health problems associated with poor nutrition, such as diabetes and obesity, are pandemic in New York City and across the country.

Many advocates say a key to eradicating this, and in changing the way young people think about food, is to start with what’s dished up in our school cafeterias. New York City’s public school system serves 860,000 meals a day, according to the Department of Education.

“The way the cafeterias are described are really like reheating centers,” said Milyoung Cho, of NYC Health Equity Project, which has conducted food research projects with students in Brooklyn and the Bronx. “On the website they say they’re serving x, y, and z, but when you go to the cafeteria, they’re only serving fries and pizza,” Cho said.

Marge Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the DOE, said that there are 80 kitchens throughout the Bronx where actual cooking takes place, and another 120 “modified kitchens” which serve only pre-cooked foods. The DOE also relies on satellite locations equipped with refrigerators and warming units to supply food to some schools, she said.

Cafeterias must work from a list of foods approved by the DOE, which has contracts with 28 food vendor companies.

“A lot of it is processed, packaged food,” said Heidi Hynes, director at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona, which runs a DOE-supported afterschool program. (The center has its own kitchen that turns out fresh, hot meals daily—since the program pays for its food supplies independently of the DOE, they are not subject to the same food requirements.)

Experts say reform is difficult for New York City, the biggest school district in the country.

“Just by nature of it being so large, I think there’s some lack of control there,” said Kate Adamick, a food systems consultant and professional chef who specializes in reforming school lunches. 

“And because the people in charge are just so busy getting food on the plates every day, I don’t think there’s anyone there to step back and look at the whole picture in a very holistic, comprehensive way,” she said.

The Department of Education, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has made strides to improve school nutrition – banning soda and other junk food from school vending machines and trying to incorporate more fresh fruits and vegetables onto lunch trays.

Educators in the Bronx are trying other tactics. At Discovery High School in Kingsbridge Heights, science teacher Steve Ritz had his students growing their own fruits and vegetables as part of their Living Environments class. The gardens and indoor green walls were a hit, and produced enough produce to feed hundreds of students and guests at two separate healthy luncheons they hosted last spring.

Perhaps Ritz’ tactics will catch on. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. organized the first ever Bronx Food Summit in May—a day of workshops and panel discussions about nutrition, as well as hands-on classes for parents to learn how to cook fresh fruits and vegetables for their families, or start their own herb gardens at home.

The goal, Diaz told the crowd, was to help lead the Bronx into a future where high school cafeterias had their own salad bars and elementary students tended to vegetable gardens during science class. A future, perhaps, where French fries aren’t the only vegetables on a student’s cafeteria tray.

“Imagine,” Diaz said. “Walking and picking a strawberry off the wall and eating it.”

Ed. Note: This article was written as part of an education reporting fellowship granted by New York Community Media Alliance.