Acclaimed chefs and school nutrition pros will duel to create delicious dishes for National School Lunch Program...In the past three years, Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives Sam Kass has emceed culinary battles around the US for First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign. Next month, Kass will again take center stage when he hosts the 'Great American School Lunch Challenge' during the Building a Healthier Future Summit in Washington, DC. Scheduled for March 6-8, the conference is organized by Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), the foundation that supports the First Lady's child obesity campaign. (Above: Kass in action at a 2011 competition)
Food Network star and bestselling cookbook author Anne Burrell and chef/restaurateur Jose Garces, a James Beard Award winner and Iron Chef America champ, will lead teams that include school nutrition professionals when they compete in an epic battle to create delicious dishes that can be served in the National School Lunch Program. They'll be required to keep to the USDA dietary guidelines and tight budget as they go knife-to-knife before a live audience. (Above: Burrell during a White House visit for Let's Move!) Kass emceed a similar culinary duel at the Partnership's first Summit, when teams of acclaimed chefs--including Tom Colicchio and Ming Tsai--were faced with a six-year old judge who provided high comic relief by snubbing the terrific dishes prepared with a Food Stamps budget for the Great American Family Dinner Challenge.
"Last year’s Great American Family Dinner Challenge was one of the highlights of the Building a Healthier Future Summit," said PHA President and CEO Lawrence A. Soler.
"This year’s Great American School Lunch Challenge, presented by Cooking Light, will be just as exciting for attendees, who can watch, taste and compare the food they are eating with what was on their tray in their school days."
About 32 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program, and sweeping changes to cafeteria menus went into effect at the beginning of this school year, thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act 2010, the legislative centerpiece of the Let's Move! campaign.
The competition, said Soler, will be "a great opportunity to raise awareness for the higher nutrition standards that school cafeterias nationwide have adopted to encourage healthier habits among K-12 students.”
For the battle, Brian Giles, senior food services administrator of the Houston Independent School District, "will guide Chef Burrell and her teammate, HISD Operations Manager Pamela Guillory," PHA said. Paula Angelucci, the nutrition director of the Colonial School District near Wilmington, DE, will "provide Chef Garces and Colonial School District Cafeteria Manager Renee Elliott with helpful pointers."
Judges will be Tim Carman, food writer for The Washington Post and recipient of the James Beard Award for food-related columns and commentary; Debra Eschmeyer, co-founder of FoodCorps and recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award; Scott Mowbray, editor of Cooking Light and award-winning veteran of Time, Inc; Amie Valpone, editor-in-chief of TheHealthyApple.com and a Manhattan-based chef; and the three winners of the Healthy Schools Campaign’s 2011 Cooking Up Change contest.
Mrs. Obama is PHA's honorary Chair, and she will deliver the Summit's keynote address on March 8th. The third anniversary of Let's Move! was on Feb. 9.
In December, PHA announced that Time, Inc. has signed on as "the exclusive media sponsor" for the conference, and will devote its print and digital properties to promoting the slate of scheduled events, as well as have an "on site" presence at the Summit to promote its own health-related brands. Novo Nordisk, "the world’s leader in delivering innovative diabetes medicines," and Birds Eye have also signed on as National sponsors.
The Summit will be at the Grand Hyatt Washington; Mrs. Obama's keynote will be at George Washington University. Registration details for the Summit are here.
*Photos by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama
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