Access to good, healthy food in schools is a right and not a privilege. Further, knowing where your food comes from is essential element in shaping every child's relationship to food and to the development of their eating habits. As members of the San Diego culinary community, the Confab supports the farmers who are providing local whole food for San Diego's schools, the policy makers who are implementing these programs and the educators that are creating and developing curriculum inside and outside the classroom that is enhancing our youth's awareness of local real foods.
Confab School Lunch is a gathering of the food community and a meeting of the minds to press for further progress for better school lunch and to acknowledge and celebrate the work that is vigorously being done by dedicated stakeholders leading the way toward making positive and dramatic changes to the landscape of the cafeteria lunch program. ..meet the stakeholders and learn how to become one yourself!
And! enjoy some creative and delicious spins on school lunch from the Confablieri.
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With the nation-wide demand for attention to proper nutrition and responsible eating within schools, including the recent congressional passing of the Child Nutrition Act, the Cooks Confab &
Slow Food Urban San Diego will host "School Lunch!" on Sunday, April 3rd. An Event dedicated to raising awareness of the staggering epidemic of mediocre food being served in our schools, the innovative chefs of the Cooks Confab will partner with local farms, ranchers, fishers and artisans to serve Haute Cafeteria Style Cuisine (HCSC)™ at Fibonacci's Campus Pointe Bistro, by Waters. They
will showcase healthy "School Lunch" options designed to spark critical discussion about an issue that needs immediate attention from not only the San Diego community, but communities across the country.
"Only through educational outreach, mutual partnership with all the stakeholders of this broken system will real change for our children's good be accomplished," said Andrew Spurgin, co-founder of Cooks Confab. "Our goal is to raise awareness and connect concerned parents, students, administrators and most importantly, the general public, by helping educating them about the problem and presenting them with realistic options that can translate into real change."
On point with national parent advocacy groups like Better School Food, which has rejected the National School Lunch Program and instead turned to local farmers for fresh alternatives, the Cooks Confab is among the growing movement of nation-wide leaders of community supported coalition advocates who are demonstrating first hand that communities can be the masters of their
own school lunch menus.
Helping to lead the "School Lunch!" dialogue will be Vanessa Zajfen, the Farm to School Specialist for the San Diego Unified School District, joined by a panel of farmers, school administrators and food service people who have been integral in creating a district-wide program which brings locally-grown produce into school cafeterias through a "Harvest of the Month" program. This illustrious panel of like-minded supporters will give guests a provocative inside look at the current situation in San Diego's school lunch programs and the existing reform movements that are actively being pursued on a local level.
Together with several already established programs such as Farmto-School and Edible Schoolyard, among others, the Cooks Confab will issue a challenge to San Diegans to do more and proactively educate themselves about where the food in children's school lunch programs is coming from and how they can help to implement lasting change in their own school districts.
Driven by a common passion to change a desperately broken system that affects many of their own school-aged children, the seventeen chefs of the Confablieri will be putting their culinary talents to the test, creating healthful "Cafeteria Fare". The dishes will also underscore a farm-to-institution concept by incorporating fresh local produce from nearby farms and eliminating the highly processed ingredients that permeate current cafeteria menu selections.
The HCSC will include such dishes as KITCHEN 1540's Paul McCabe's play on healthy "Fish & Chips" - Wild Striped Bass, Baked Vegetable Chips, Tartar Sauce, NINE-TEN's Jason Knibb's riff on Beef and Brocolli and Andrew Spurgin's Salad Bar featuring produce picked that morning by kids from Waters' Fibonacci's Organic Garden.
"School Lunch!" will be held from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Fibonacci's Campus Pointe Bistro on Sunday, April 3, 2011. The event is open to the public (kids welcome), and tickets will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.
To purchase tickets, please visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/157469 and for more information visit http://www.cooksconfab.com.
All event proceeds benefit Slow Food Urban San Diego's mission to support San Diego Unified District's Farm to School Program and other like-minded projects.
About Cooks Confab, www.cooksconfab.com
What began as a few local chefs casually chatting over food and drinks has now evolved into Cooks Confab, a grouping of San Diego's most innovative chefs sharing their culinary talents with San Diegans by hosting educational events, stylishly fun dinner parties and smaller-scale gatherings with the overall goal to generate awareness on important food-related causes in our community today. A progressive concept that changes venues with each event, each of the now seventeen chefs involved takes a turn hosting at their venue, bringing his or her own distinct flavor to the chosen edible-driven theme or cause. Through dinners, special events and educational sessions, the members of Cooks Confab hope to foster awareness in individuals to make responsible decisions in their food choices and to promote the importance and accessibility of local, sustainable and responsible ingredients.
Slow Food Urban San Diego seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in San Diego's local food system. Its mission is to reconnect Urban San Diegans with each other, rediscover food traditions and cultural heritage and educate our community about the plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food. In addition, it supports the mission, tenets, programs and values of Slow
Food USA. Slow Food Urban San Diego seeks to inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in food eaten.