'Cafeteria Man' champions fresh foods in schools
As Food and Nutrition Director of , Tony Geraci set out to replace pre-plated, frozen school lunches with fresh, local produce, transforming students鈥� understanding of their meals and the plants behind them.
The 鈥淐afeteria Man鈥� is the story of Geraci鈥檚 mission to give students the power to change what鈥檚 wrong with our nation鈥檚 school lunches.
In Baltimore schools, students lived off a diet of frozen pizza and pre-packaged, processed meats, canned fruits, and dehydrated veggies. Kids are shown shouting, 鈥淢ystery meat again?鈥� as they file into the school cafeteria for lunch.
Enter the Cafeteria Man.
鈥淚n one generation, fruit has become a flavor, not a food,鈥� Geraci says regretfully.
Juice boxes labeled 鈥渢wo聽servings of fruit!鈥� and cans of juice printed with glossy images of fruits and vegetables make it easy for young students to confuse the flavor of fruit with fruit itself. Thus, the Cafeteria Man鈥檚 first order of business was to get some real fruit鈥攏ot concentrated juices or watered-down smoothies鈥攊nto cafeterias. He chose to introduce students to local, Maryland-grown peaches.
鈥淭hose peaches were fresh,鈥� a student recalls. 鈥淟ike fresh from a tree.鈥�
Already the produce had students thinking about where their food came from鈥攏ot from the store, but from the land. Geraci wanted to make students鈥� connection between food and land even stronger.
, a 33-acre plot of land (previously home to a city-owned nature center) became an outdoor classroom for Baltimore students, a place they could smell, taste, and touch food plants they had never seen before. They learn how to compost and why. They pull weeds from vegetable gardens and water plants in one of the farm's three greenhouses.
鈥淭he single most powerful tool you can use to teach a kid about food is to plant a seed,鈥� Geraci says, 鈥渁nd watch that child watch that seed grow into a fruit or a vegetable that they harvest.鈥�
Geraci focused on exposing young students to fresh fruits and vegetables and getting them to try new foods. He did away with 鈥渕ystery meat,鈥澛爓hich students were previously served more than once a week and called 鈥渘asty.鈥� In its place: , a day for students to explore vegetarian options.
With older students, Geraci faced bigger barriers to student involvement and needed to find a way to invoke enthusiasm for food in low-income high school students. What better way to do so than give them opportunities they鈥檝e never had before?
Geraci started a summer hospitality program where students don their very own chef鈥檚 whites and learn from local restaurateurs how to prepare and cook fresh meat and seafood. The student-run restaurants also serve Great Kids Farm produce.
And the hospitality program shows students they are important.聽
鈥淢ost of us grew up without a father,鈥� a student in the program says, 鈥渟ome of us grew up without a mother and a father. It鈥檚 giving us our own voice.鈥�
The film also documents Geraci鈥檚 efforts to empower students to influence our nation鈥檚 leaders. In 2009, he took five Baltimore students to Washington, D.C., to testify about the urgency of school nutrition reform in front of a congressional committee.
In the committee meeting, Alice, a Cafeteria Girl, spoke confidently into the microphone, telling the committee members,聽鈥淭he same kids who are already struggling to eat good food at home are getting inferior meals at school. The city could spend its money better on healthier, tastier foods, rather than on pre-packaged junk.鈥�
Alice鈥檚 words ring true for many cities, and she is hopeful about the leadership role Geraci has entrusted to her and her peers.
鈥淲hat kids can do is surprising,鈥� she says.
鈥� Abigail Woughter is a senior studying agricultural sciences at Cornell University.
鈥� at , a think tank focused on feeding the world better. Food Tank researches and highlights environmentally, socially, and economically聽sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty and creates networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change.
