Second from top left: Chef Graham Dodds of Central 214 helps fill lunch trays at J.L. Long Middle School.
At right: Dodds took his cart around the school’s cafeteria to let students sample edamame, celery, carrots with hummus and fruit.
Bottom: Chef Anastacia Quinones of Komali encourages students at Thomas Jefferson High School to try something new.
DALLAS—On Thursday, May 2, selected Dallas ISD schools received a local top chef into their cafeteria as part of the Chefs Move to Schools program. The participating chefs came from various Dallas restaurants including Nick and Sam’s, Chamberlain’s Steak and Chop House, Komali and others.
During lunchtimes the chef participated in three main activities: meeting and greeting students at the doors of the cafeteria with the principal, serving on the cafeteria line and working side by side with cafeteria employees to serve the meals of the day, and conducting a table side moveable feast in which the chef maneuvered a cart around the cafeteria and encouraged students to try a variety of foods that included edamame, hummus with vegetables and Rio Grande Valley citrus.
The Chefs Move to Schools program, founded in May 2010, is an integral part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative and its goal of solving the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. Chefs and Schools have a unique opportunity to work together to teach kids about food in a fun, appealing way. The program seeks to utilize the creativity and culinary expertise of chefs to help schools ensure that America’s youngest generation grows up healthy.
