‘Schools Are Not in Any Way Situated to Produce Food, Good Food.’
Dan Giusti, founder of Brigaid, talks about the challenges, three years in, of trying to change public school lunch
Chef Dan Giusti left his job as Head Chef at Noma, in Copenhagen, and returned to the U.S. to attempt the seemingly insurmountable: to change the public school lunch program. It’s a beyond complicated process, one with many challenges — but also many rewards. The goal? To get kids eating real food for lunch. Every day. (Just hold the chopped herbs.)
In 2016, Brigaid partnered with the public schools in New London, Connecticut, followed by the Morris high school campus in the Bronx in 2018.
Kate Bittman: You say that schools have gradually lost their ability to cook. Can you talk about that?
Dan Giusti: I think anywhere where cooking was still happening, a lot of it went away when the nutritional guidelines came about in 2010. It’s extremely prohibitive to have these guidelines as strict as they are. Not because I don’t think we should have nutritional guidelines — I think there should be some kind of standard in place — but there was a time where a lot of people from the community were just cooking food, and it might not have been the most nutritious of food, but it…
