Frozen food shipped in on trucks and heated in a microwave may soon be a thing of the past for Baltimore City schools. Fresh, “home-cooked” meals are hot this year.
The school system recently hired Anthony Geraci, a restaurateur and chef who?s well-known in the food industry, to take over the Nutrition Services Department. Cooking meals from scratch will be a major part of his plan to improve not only students? physical fitness, but also their behavior and grades, he said.
“It?s unrealistic to expect a teacher to be able to execute a lesson plan if thechild sitting in front of them is jacked up on Lucky Charms, or worse, no food at all,” said Geraci, who began his career opening restaurants in New Orleans and specialized in sales for companies including Pillsbury and Hormel Foods.
Antonia Demas, a consultant who for decades has worked to educate students in Baltimore and throughout the country about nutrition, said the trend of improving the quality of meals is relatively new and not unique to this city.
“Everybody is starting to change now,” Demas said. “I?ve noticed this past year educators are starting to pay attention to the food much more than they have in the past, and the role it plays in not only the physical aspects of the kids, but also in their academic performance. I think it?s happened because things have gotten so bad.”
The school system was introduced to Geraci in March 2006, when the nonprofit Baltimore Efficiency and Economy Foundation released its report on school meals in Baltimore City.
The report, funded by The Abell Foundation, lists 18 recommendations, but the first was to hire a food service director “who has a vision and passion” ? and the second was to consult Geraci.
His first goal is to improve breakfast. Baltimore is one of the only school districts in the country that offers free breakfast to all students.
Many of his plans had been successfully carried out for the past four years at the Conval School District in New Hampshire.
Geraci, who starts July 1 and will earn $104,000, also said he hopes to involve students by making it a class project for them to devise school menus for breakfast and lunch. The meals would have to meet federal nutrition standards, and students would gain extra points for using local food or family recipes.
“Charm City has amazing resources,” Geraci said. “I don?t think they?ve been utilized to the advantage of the kids as much as they could.”
