 New York City Inspired by Rome, Italy to Reach for Quality Institututional Food
by Toni Liquori March 30-April 5, New York City - Two pioneers of school and city food system reform from the European Union spoke to audiences across New York city during a six day visit. By week’s end, just about everyone involved was trying to figure out how to set up a transatlantic learning exchange between Rome and New York City in order to improve food quality even further in both cities. Silvana Sari, Director of School and Education Policy for the City of Rome, and Roberta Sonnino, Department of City and Regional Planning at Cardiff University in Wales, spoke about the changes Sari has introduced to the school meals program in Rome. This visit had its origins in a meeting in Paris last December organized by Alimenterra and Sustainable Food Lab (SFL) which brought together leaders in hospital and school meals change from countries across the European Union and the United States (see “Schools and Hospitals Compare Sustainable Food Initiatives”). During the meeting in Paris, participants described and compared “sustainable” food initiatives from diverse institutional settings and perspectives. The size and scope of the school meals change work that Sari had managed in Rome stood out to the American participants as especially relevant for their colleagues back home. So Food Lab members, Toni Liquori of Teachers College, Columbia University (former Senior Director of Food Policy at FoodChange, Inc.) and John Turenne, founder of Sustainable Food Systems and former executive chef at Yale University, decided to look for opportunities for New York and other large American cities to learn more about what Rome had accomplished. Upon returning from Paris, Liquori became involved in the planning process for a New York City-wide conference on school meals (Schools and Food: Innovation, Opportunity, and Wellness) which ultimately became the anchor for a series of talks and dinners by Sari and Sonnino held at:
Rome’s school meals change efforts may be the world’s most far-reaching large city program. They support a “big tent” definition of health which includes the social and nutritional health of the child along with a clear philosophy of environmental stewardship. While recognizing that their approach is quite different than the regulations and contracting protocols followed in the U.S. and that the food culture is even more different, Rome’s transition provides important lessons to American cities. School meals represent 40% of public catering in Rome and serve approximately 140,000 meals each day plus a mid-morning snack for all. When Sari began in 2000, Rome’s school meals were poor quality. The food was mostly conventionally-produced, not much of it organic with little attention paid to seasonality, variety, and balance between caloric and nutritional content. She also viewed the monitoring system as ineffective. The cost of the meal, in terms of food and labor, was approximately $4.81 at that time – just about double the reimbursement rate for school lunch in the United States. Sari believed that Rome could do much better by:
Her assessment led her to study all stages of the food chain – from its supply, to processing and packaging and through preparation – reflecting an understanding of a more elongated food chain. More than anything else, contractual change with the food companies was the main lever for systems change in Rome where the school meals program is almost entirely privatized. In the U.S., individual public school districts run their own operations for the most part. A more important difference, however, is that food contracting companies are responsible for more than food in Rome. Under Sari’s direction their contracts have changed from “low cost bid” to a 100-point system to provide a “best value” – one that is not simply calculated at the lowest purchase price, the determining criteria of the American system. In Rome’s framework, the purchase price of the food accounts for only 51 points. The other 49 points are based on a variety of inputs considered essential to the success of its program – including a combination of infrastructural support and changes in the type, or quality, of food made available.
In terms of changes in the type or quality of food made available, Rome privileges food characteristics such as place of origin, organic production, products from bio-dedicated food chains, and fair trade products through its tendering process. Using the principle of gradual change, Sari weighted these two categories – infrastructure and food characteristics – differently in the two three-year contracts she has led during her tenure to date. She based the “weighting” on the condition of the meal system as each contract began – the first from 2002 through 2004; the second from 2004 through 2007. In this way of thinking, the “weighting” continues to be adjusted over time to “fit” the needs at the school level and to correct trouble spots as they inevitably arise. Also, in light of the success and what was learned during the 2002-04 contract period, the City invested 166 million euros in the second contract period order to build on the initial changes. Altogether, the cost change amounted to 27 cents per meal. Sari’s advice on best practices for change:
In her assessment, being more specific about the meaning of “food quality” in a tendering process is important but so is monitoring the food contracts closely to assure receipt of what had been ordered. During the first three-year contract Sari also increased the number of monitoring visits from 160 (in the period prior to her arrival) to 1,200 which, in turn, led to the increase in fines/sanctions on the food companies from 7 to 450. The second three-year contract saw an additional increase in monitoring visits to approximately 3,500. The number of fines/sanctions for non-compliance in this time period decreased to 107, suggesting that the contracting firms now really “get what is expected of them.” Significantly, during the second three-year contract, the contracting companies also agreed to:
The school meal is a powerful vehicle for both education and change. It represents an important leverage point because through serving healthy foods, institutions can shift regional food systems toward greater sustainability while simultaneously promoting their own institutional missions. Kevin Morgan, Professor of European Regional Development , said it best, “The school meal is at the forefront of the debate about the health of our young people … a prism through which we can examine some of the larger questions that face us today”. How can the public realm reassert itself and begin to set demanding and innovative standards for health and well-being? How can public procurement become a creative force for sustainable development rather than being stymied by (real and imagined) regulations? The search for the “big idea” to tackle obesity is a forlorn quest, for the simple reason that there isn’t one. We have to recognize that there are lots of “little ideas” and these need to be synchronized if we are ever to realize the multiple dividends of healthy school meals. |
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