Tuesday, October 4, 2022

October is National Farm to School month


October is National Farm to School Month, a time to celebrate the connections happening all over the country between children and local food! Throughout October, follow the National Farm to School Network on FacebookTwitter and Instagram to see how communities are celebrating; include the hashtags #farmtoschool and #F2SMonth in your social media messages; and, visit farmtoschool.org to read great stories about farm to school’s impacts and successes and how the movement is working to connect millions of kids to healthy, local foods. 

Whether you are a food service professional, farmer, teacher or food-loving family, there are plenty of ways to celebrate National Farm to School Month! Visit farmtoschool.org to learn more. #FarmtoSchool

Friday, September 30, 2022

The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition & Health-Converge

 


Last week I was honored to receive an invite to be a guest at The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition & Health  on Wednesday September 28th. I was honored for so many reasons, as a dad, chef, no kid hungry advocate and child nutrition advocate I knew this would be the day to start to change the way the country looks at food in a new way. And man was I right! The President of the United States, national leaders, change-makers, visionaries, hunger champions, moms, dads, students, teachers, chefs  and so many others all gathered to listen, react, network and accept the charge to make the world a better place. 



Food is fuel, providing us all with what we need to be the best we can every day. Free meals for all school children is something I firmly believe will make the biggest difference, couple that with nutrition education and we now have the ability to engage a captive audience of nearly 50 million kids and their families! This is huge, almost 1/6 of the US population is school children, includes their families and we are now talking about a good portion of the population to educate, feed, learn from about Hunger, Nutrition & Health.


But wait, there more! Not only is this about free meals for all, but reducing dietary related diseases, combating food insecurity, helping people access healthy foods, encouraging and helping participation in physical activities, creating a national prescription program to cover healthy foods and increase funding for seniors.


Here is the National Strategy: 
Pillar 1—Improve Food Access and Affordability: 

End hunger by making it easier for everyone—including individuals in urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities, and territories—to access and afford food.

Pillar 2—Integrate Nutrition and Health: 

Prioritize the role of nutrition and food security in overall health—including disease prevention and management—and ensure that our health care system addresses the nutrition needs of all people.

Pillar 3—Empower All Consumers to Make and Have Access to Healthy Choices:

Foster environments that enable all people to easily make informed, healthy choices, increase access to healthy food, encourage healthy workplace and school policies, and invest in public education campaigns that are culturally appropriate and resonate with specific communities.

Pillar 4—Support Physical Activity for All:

Make it easier for people to be more physically active—in part by ensuring that everyone has access to safe places to be active—increase awareness of the benefits of physical activity, and conduct research on and measure physical activity.

Pillar 5—Enhance Nutrition and Food Security Research:

Improve nutrition metrics, data collection, and research to inform nutrition and food security policy, particularly on issues of equity, access, and disparities. 


As I sit here today at the TTI Success Insights Converge Conference in Phoenix we are discussing how to build deeper and more collaborative relationships with everyone. Our company, Cipriano Training & Development, has the ability to invest in the creation of resources, support and share expertise to help deliver transformative experiences to the food community. Let’s build better, stronger teams so as we start challenging and changing the world we are equipped and set up for success. 

When I was a working Chef I started my day with my mise en place so I was prepared. We all need to have a plan of action and together we can help teams be stronger and more successful.

Let’s appreciate the greatness of everyone; respect for others by listening to, admiring, and acknowledging each other’s opinions, their feelings, their time, and their personal space, Respect is something that’s earned - you have to give it to get it. (*Credit: TTI Success Insights). 

Let’s change the world the right way!

Contact me Chef Tim on how to collaborate and build stronger teams: tim@ciprianotraining.com.


*TTI Success Insights is an award winning, industry-leading assessment provider based in Scottsdale, AZ that is dedicated to sparking transformative experiences through assessment solutions and research.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Celebrate National Farm to School Month

October is National Farm to School Month, a time to celebrate the connections happening all over the country between children and local food! Throughout October, follow the National Farm to School Network on FacebookTwitter and Instagram to see how communities are celebrating; include the hashtags #farmtoschool and #F2SMonth in your social media messages; and, visit farmtoschool.org to read great stories about farm to school’s impacts and successes. New to farm to school? Register to attend the Farm to School 101 webinar on Tuesday, October 13 from 12-12:30pm CT for a look at how the movement is working to connect millions of kids to healthy, local food. Whether you are a food service professional, farmer, teacher or food-loving family, there are plenty of ways to celebrate National Farm to School Month! Visit farmtoschool.org to learn more.

Friday, March 27, 2015

NHPS proves the point; school meal regs work!

The school meal regulations ARE achievable as shown by New Haven Public Schools and the Rudd Center.

Healthy Kids First is the tag line for NHPS and it is as accurate as can be. New Haven pulled out the stops for New Haven Public School students and it shows!

Over the course of two school years, spring of 2012 to spring of 2014the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at UCONN and the Yale University School of Public Health tracked students at 12 New Haven middle schools to see if plate waste of fruits, vegetables and milk had increased. What you will see in the study, plate waste didn't increase but consumption of fruit, vegetables and milk did increase!

Granted, NHPS, was well ahead of the curve. In 2008 anticipating the federal standards would be tightened up grains were replaced with whole grains, and smart menu changes were in the works. Vegetables were blended into marinara sauce, mac and cheese incorporated vegetable purees to not only bump up the nutritional content but to start developing palates. The pizza went to a whole grain crust with a label with less ingredients. Slowly over the course of a few years the menus were completely revamped and the acceptability factor was acheived.  Salad bars were added to all schools thanks to partnerships with United Fresh Produce Association, the Whole Kids Foundation, the Chef Ann Foundation and Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools. Chefs Move to Schools was added to the schools in the fall of 2010 and school gardens were now part of the design for all new schools. Teaching and showing students where their food comes from is the step in the right direction. Students who worked in the school gardens became excited about eating vegetables, so much so, that when beets and red onions were removed from salad bars the students protested the decision and the salad bars offerrings were revised to be what vegetables the students wanted, thus increasing acceptability and consumption.

Kudos to the team at New Haven Public Schools for making the right changes at the right time for the wellbeing of the students.

This study shows that children will eat great food in school.

The link to the article referencing the study is here:  http://www.nhregister.com//opinion/20150325/forum-healthful-school-meals-are-working.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Shaving O' the Beard for the kids!

I decided this fall to grow my beard just to shave it off March 21st to raise money for the St. Baldrick's Foundation. Perhaps I do look like a leprechaun, let's hope the Luck O' the Irish helps me make a difference!



Did you know that kids' cancers are different from adult cancers? It's true. And childhood cancer research is extremely underfunded. So they decided to do something about it by raising money for cures. Now they need your help!

Will you make a donation? Every dollar makes a difference for the thousands of infants, children, teens, and young adults fighting childhood cancers.

I'm doing this as a tribute to all kids, young and old that I know who have beat cancer and in memory of some really good friends whom cancer took their life.

Two friends from high school lost their battle, this, in part, is for them.

Please donate here: https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/757051/2015

Dangling the Carrot; Not the Candy Bar

Yesterday I had the honor and privilege to meet with Debra Eschmeyer, the Executive Director of First Lady Michele Obama's Let's Move Campaign in the East Wing of the White House. We met in the same room that FLOTUS has strategy, think tank style meetings and we talked about efforts to continue to feed kids great food. Today I saw a posting on Facebook that,was 180 degrees opposite of that discussion. The posting was of an 8 year old at an indoor soccer arena chowing down a entire roll of starburst, at 8 o'clock in the morning  and it got me thinking.

It's so crazy that the "food" they sell at children sports venues is all crappy junk food. The facilities are designed to "build" athletes and yet they sell candy & soda to fuel up kids with sugar.

As a society we need to teach kids how to build a healthy body and this is a step in the wrong direction.

#SchoolFood has changed for the better and families are eating healthier; farmers markets and health food stores are flourishing but for whatever reason society thinks its ok to fuel kids up with sugar, sugar, sugar all the time. Every holiday now has candy associated with it, kids sports banquets end with a trophy and a bag of candy, little league baseball concessions sell crap, indoor kids soccer sells junk food, school fundraising sells junk food.

We are in the middle of a obesity epidemic in this country, yet it never ends.

Now is the time to change the paradigm and move to a healthier generation, think outside the box and take a stand for what is right for our kids.

We can become a healthier society but it all starts by dangling the carrot and NOT the candy bar!