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Healthier meals served at pricier LI private schools

BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER

November 2, 2008

Typical lunchtime fare includes quinoa, bean cakes, Swiss chard, fresh beets, tofu, tempeh, kimchee.

There are no sloppy joes. Hamburgers are served only three times a year during field days, and the beef is organic.

Private schools such as the Ross School in East Hampton don't operate under the same cost constraints public schools face when attempting to serve healthy food, allowing them more freedom to go beyond traditional school cafeteria meals.

Ross' food often is held up as a model for student dining.

A staff of 17 line chefs with impressive culinary backgrounds cook from scratch in a kitchen that rivals a five-star restaurant. And students actually like the healthy offerings, evidenced by the fact that they go through about 25 pounds of tofu per day.

Moss Turpan never had tried tofu, tempeh or polenta until he arrived at Ross. "It's pretty awesome," said Turpan, a sophomore when interviewed last school year. "It's crazy to have food this good at school."

Johanna Saldana, a junior, likes that she eats seasonal food at Ross. "The roasted carrots are yummy," she said. "I love the food here, compared to what I hear public schools get. I feel very fortunate to get this kind of food here."

When students want a snack, they can help themselves to baskets of fruit placed throughout the campus.

But achieving the ultimate ideal cafeteria comes with a price. Meals are included with the standard $24,800 annual high school tuition. Hailey London, a registered dietitian who was the school's wellness coordinator last year, estimated that breakfast, lunch and a snack costs about $5 per student each day, with about $9 more for labor expenses. She said the cost varies because students are allowed unlimited servings of vegetables.

Ross' first chef, Ann Cooper, who started in 2000, is well-known for transforming cafeterias. Known as the "Renegade Lunch Lady" and the author of the 2006 book "Lunch Lessons," which chronicles a lot of her time at Ross, Cooper is now in charge of food service for the public school system in Berkeley, Calif. Students there pay $3 for lunch, she said. That price is well above the Long Island public school average of $1.66.

"Public schools can do some of the food the Ross School does," she said. "You gotta charge more."

The dining room ambience is a stark contrast to the typical public school cafeteria setting. Gone are the long folding tables and disposable trays and utensils. Instead, students eat off ceramic plates and bowls using real silverware. They sit at circular tables overlooking a wide expanse of trees. There's no separate teacher's lunchroom; students and adults eat together.

Organic milk comes from a Westchester dairy. Organic apple cider is from a local farm. Ninety percent of Ross' produce is grown on an East End or New York State farm.

"It's very expensive to buy organic," said Lisa Smith, manager of operations for Ross' kitchen. "It's all labor. There's so much labor in the meals."

Regan Kiembock, school lunch manager of the Southampton school district, wanted to follow Ross' model. She said she called the school asking about its vendors, but found she simply couldn't afford the organic products.

"I hated to be compared to the Ross School," she said.

Another school on a more even playing field with Ross is the private Waldorf School of Garden City, where students pay between $4 and $5 for lunch.

Chef Aviva Gill said she spent $400 to $1,000 per week last year shopping at local stores such as Trader Joe's and local farm cooperatives, opting for organic meats and wild fish.

Gill prepares about 160 meals daily, with scratch-made soup that is delivered to classrooms from prekindergarten through third grade.

About 10 years ago, a group of parents banded together, demanding revamped food. "They wanted more organic, healthy, no dye, nothing artificial," Gill said.