Future of food and nutrition in our school district

Please help us shape the future of food and nutrition in our school district in a constructive, dynamic, community-centered way.

We need your letters of community support as soon as possible!

As you may already know, the Rondout Valley Food Service Manager recently resigned, creating an opportunity for a replacement that will impact the well-being of our kids for years to come. On Wednesday, January 6, 2010, the District plans to interview civil service candidates to fill this position. By State law, the District is required to interview any candidate who has advanced to a certain level of civil service aptitude based on a series of exams. Although candidates may technically qualify for the Food Service Director job, the exams do not ensure that they possess the vision or skills to create a program that can nourish students with fresh, delicious and, when possible, local food.

While this job requires an expert business manager capable of providing food within a budget, we think it is equally important that the new hire understands our community’s interest in providing our children with better food choices. The best possible candidate would have a full understanding of food and wellness issues– including nutrition, agriculture, food sourcing and food preparation –as well as real world experience in the culinary arts.

Healthier, better tasting food translates into more students and staff buying meals as well as a program that is better able to support itself financially.

What are we asking of you? Let the Board of Education know that you care about these issues. Please send a letter (it can be as short as a couple of lines) to the Rondout Valley Board of Education expressing why school food and nutrition are important to you and your family.


To e-mail your letter, please follow this link: http://www.rondout.k12.ny.us/cms/One.aspx?portalId=719450&pageId=993674


Important issues you may wish to discuss in your letter:

(Feel free to use these points as reference, but please write about what is important to you)


* Model programs show that healthy, non-processed, real food helps improve students’ behavior and their ability to focus and perform better in school. (for more info, see http://www.feingold.org/Bluebook/page-09-wisconsin.pdf)
* The importance of making a careful, thoughtful decision to hire the best person available for the job.

# Taking the time necessary to find and choose a School Food Service Director who has consideration for

* Cooking real food

# Delicious food
# Fresh local food
# Farm-to-School programs
# Food as curriculum
Thanks for your Support!

Sincerely,

Nicci Cagan & Mary Jane Nusbaum
Co-Founders
From the Ground Up
845-687-4124