New community kitchen feeds children, needy

Serving nutritional meals on time at a temperature required by federal guidelines while simultaneously pleasing 2,500 finicky youth campers is Second Harvest Food Bank’s Summer Feeding program’s triumph in its sophomore year.

    This has been accomplished with the opening June 2 of Second Harvest’s new, 8,000-square-foot community kitchen.
    “There was such a huge ramp up this year to make sure it would work flawlessly,” Natalie Jayroe, executive director of Second Harvest, said. “By week 4, we’ve got all the kinks out.”
    Each weekday from 4:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., the kitchen is ablaze with activity. Chef Tony Biggs leads a staff of 12 (including assistant chef Keith Faulkner, a dietitian and St. Augustine High School cafeteria workers) plus volunteers as they cook and package about 4,500 meals (breakfast and lunch) for children attending summer programs at 35 sites citywide. As the summer continues, the kitchen is expected to prepare 6,000 meals a day.
    The $2 million, state-of-the-art kitchen was designed by Eskew, Dumez and Ripple Architects, and Tripp Moynihan worked as a kitchen consultant. The cooking capacity of the kitchen – containing a cook-and-chill system with an 80-pound drum, a combi-oven that steams, roasts and bakes, a convection oven, and a tilt skillet – is 10,000 meals a day, although Jayroe thinks the capacity is greater.
    “It’s amazing,” Jayroe said. “With all the technology, we can do 2,500 meals in two hours.”
    To ensure quality and adherence to strict Summer Feeding guidelines, daily meetings between the chef, inventory control, the drivers and site directors answer the questions, “Are meals getting to where they needed to go on time?” “Are they at the right temperature?” “Are the kids enjoying them?”
    Biggs infuses flavor into the two ounces of protein, vegetables and other government requirements, without serving children hot dogs, chicken nuggets or pizza. For example, he’ll make a spinach casserole and add ham or prepare macaroni and cheese with spinach and ham to make it more appealing to children.
    “They loved the meals and selections,” Biggs said about the inaugural 2010 Summer Feeding.  Similar comments are echoed this year. “We’ve had a positive reaction at all our sites. We cook nutritional, family-type meals you would eat at home at Sunday dinner.”
    “It’s a little different than your normal school lunches,” Jayroe said. “It’s something a little creative.”
 

Need is there    
    Before Second Harvest built the kitchen, a feasibility study was conducted. It revealed that a kitchen was needed, especially considering the closure of many community kitchens after Hurricane Katrina and the increased amount of perishable food received at Second Harvest.
    “We’ve been thinking about this for several years,” she said about the kitchen.
    When Second Harvest moved to larger headquarters at 700 Edwards Ave. in Elmwood, the kitchen was fast-tracked to accommodate the increased participation in Summer Feeding. “We didn’t want children to go another year without it.”
    The new kitchen allowed more sites catering to children in need to participate in Summer Feeding this year. Three of Catholic Charities’ Summer Witness campsites – Sojourner Truth, Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Chalmette and Incarnate Word Community Center – are served. Second Harvest also is working with the Vietnamese community and the New Orleans Mayor’s Office, New Orleans Recreation Department, RSD Schools, Share Our Strength and the Partnership for Youth Development after-school program.
    “We got all the players to the table and saw where RSD and NORD programs were going and made sure we identified the need,” Jayroe said.
    What the new kitchen accomplished over last summer: individual portions are pre-packaged in single-serving trays when sent to sites as opposed to large pans of food that were portioned to campers on site.
    “We already have people on the waiting list for next year,” Jayroe said.
So many uses in sight
    The kitchen’s usefulness will extend far beyond summer. Jayroe said the kitchen could pre-cook and package food – that otherwise would perish – for immediate distribution to the needy through partner agencies or could be frozen for later distribution in disaster situations such as hurricanes, tornados and floods. Second Harvest also is partnering with the American Red Cross to provide disaster meals.
    “It fits in with our mission as a responder to disaster,” Jayroe said. The kitchen was paid for with gifts from Catholic Charities USA and Feeding America.
    Jayroe also envisions Second Harvest partnering with Christopher Homes and the Council on Aging to cook meals for seniors. Many seniors are on waiting lists for Meals on Wheels. A charter school partnership is also in the works.
    “What makes the model so workable is that the grassroots organizations don’t have to work directly with the state programs. We are the entity that interacts with the Louisiana Department of Education (where USDA dollars go for Summer Feeding), and we sign the sites up as our point of distribution.”
    Second Harvest’s kitchen also features a smaller, studio kitchen that seats approximately 12-15 around a countertop. It will be equipped with video equipment to record cooking demonstrations. The studio kitchen is currently used for Cooking Matters, a program to teach mothers of children in Head Start programs to use their food dollars wisely and cook healthily. In the future, educational dinners, fund-raisers and community cooking classes to raise awareness of Second Harvest will utilize the space, Jayroe said. A cable show is also a possibility.
    Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].