Over the last year, the GJSD Food Services Department has embraced a variety of opportunities to elevate its offerings for staff and students, focusing on healthier, better-tasting meals made with locally sourced ingredients whenever possible.
One such opportunity presented itself earlier this week, with visiting professional chefs from Cornell Cooperative Extension’s (CCE) Regional Farm to School Program called “Regional Roots.” The initiative provides free, hands-on training to school kitchen staff, focusing on scratch cooking with local ingredients and building, strengthening, and implementing sustainable farm-to-school programs.
Chefs arrived at the Johnstown High School kitchen at 6:30 a.m. and got right to work, alongside the kitchen cooks for each of Johnstown’s four school buildings. The menu for the day consisted of BBQ chicken thighs (chicken sourced from Morning Star poultry in Fort plains NY), broccoli slaw and homemade honey cornbread. With more than 300 meals served in just over one hour, beginning with the first lunch period at 10:53 a.m., there was no time to waste.
Throughout the morning, CCE chefs guided Johnstown’s Food Services staff through every step of the preparation process, carefully measuring fresh ingredients and calculating recipe quantities needed to serve more than 300 meals from scratch.
Scratch cooking is the preparation of meals using whole, basic ingredients from the very beginning, rather than relying on pre-packaged, processed, or heat-and-serve items. It gives total control over what goes into your food, helping avoid added preservatives, sodium, and artificial flavors.
According to GJSD Food Services Director Simone Bodman, the scratch-cooking experience was a complete success on every level.
“Our kitchen staff loved learning from the professionals, and each of them took pride in serving a homemade meal to our school community,” Bodman said. “The students seemed to love it, and I’m pretty sure we sold a record number of staff meals that day.”
She also explained why scratch cooking can be difficult to sustain in a school setting. “As much as we would love to provide meals like this every day, the challenges of cost, staffing, and the amount of preparation involved make that an unrealistic goal,” Bodman said. “We do, however, plan to incorporate more scratch cooking into portions of student meals next year.”
In addition to hosting a day of scratch cooking, Bodman has overseen several improvements and additions to cafeteria offerings at the high school, elevating the traditionally routine meals students have come to expect. Just this year, she introduced themed weekly salad bars, homemade soups, a breakfast bar featuring creative options like build-your-own yogurt parfaits, a coffee, tea, and hot chocolate station, and special international-themed meals. The ideas that prove successful at the high school, will be rolled out at Knox Middle School soon, and eventually to the elementary schools as well.
“Simone and her staff deserve tremendous credit,” Superintendent of Schools Ms. Alicia D. Koster said. “They have embraced the challenge of improving our breakfast and lunch offerings and have truly gone above and beyond. Simone brings incredible enthusiasm to every idea she develops and follows through with thoughtful, high-quality implementation.”
Not only is Bodman elevating cafeteria offerings, but she is also aligning her work with the broader mission of the District by providing à la carte catering for District events and even stepping into the classroom to teach students basic culinary skills and simple recipes.
“Simone is in lockstep with the District’s mission of increasing the amount of locally sourced foods used in the meals we serve, and is making her own connections to local farmers and other producers,” Koster said. “The ultimate goal is to reach a 30% threshold of New York State–grown foods, which would qualify us for state reimbursement incentives to help offset the higher cost of purchasing locally grown and produced items.”
