All language subtitles for Eat.Up.2019.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX].en

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(cheerful music)

[Archive Narrator] Yes, kids
are always hungry

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and that's fine, nothing wrong
with a good healthy appetite

as long as it gets taken
care of at the right time

with enough of the
right foods.

And here in the
United States

we're lucky. Our
children, none of them

need to go hungry,
we've got the food.

(edgy rock music)

- What do you think is
the number one complaint

I hear from kids?

- Lunch.
- It's not cooked.

- [Boy] This is not cooked,
it's just microwaved

and it tastes bad.

- We have a high
percentage of students

living at or below
the poverty level.

- Hunger is our number
one concern that comes up

each and every day as an
implication of poverty.

- 85% of the kids who go to
the public schools in Boston

get 75% of their calories
every day from schools.

(girl gags)

- When you talk to young
people, you hear it

over and over again,
"We want better food."

- I come out of lunch hungry.

That doesn't even make sense,
to come out of lunch hungry

but I do.

- The kicker is it's
a $25 billion industry

to feed kids in schools.

- They don't have knives, they
don't have cutting boards,

they don't have funding.

It's hard to serve healthy
foods when you have

a can opener and a microwave.

- Anything is better than
what we've got right now.

What we've got
right now is so bad

that kids aren't eating at all.

(edgy rock music)

(vegetable crunches)

(downbeat rock music)

All right, are we
good to go, okay.

(downbeat rock music)

- Jennie's down there.
- I don't know my way around.

To the right.

So I was in a school one day and

we were going to
do a food tasting

and when I walked
into the cafeteria,

it was a heating
oven and a freezer.

And they opened the freezer
and showed me the food

and the food was all frozen

and I later found out it was
shipped up from Long Island

and it was all
wrapped in plastic.

They showed me how they
heated it up in the plastic,

served it in the plastic,

and I said, is that
the way we feed kids?

And he goes, "Primarily,
the majority of urban kids

are probably fed that way."

And it's very efficient
and there's big businesses

built around it and
that's how it is.

So is that the
best way to do it?

- That's very standard
way to do it, yeah.

- Okay.

- They are within the
nutritional guidelines

of the USDA program and
the dietary guidelines

for Americans, they don't
look healthy, but they are.

- Sure, and what are you
using to heat it up now?

(doors creak)

(downbeat rock music)

I don't know that I was
well equipped for it.

Except for that I've
always been an entrepreneur

and challenges like this are
really interesting to me.

I've started a
bunch of companies,

I've raised tons of money,
I've sold companies,

I've created product, I've
done all kinds of things.

(downbeat rock music)

We were going to be
launching this foundation

focusing on education
and healthcare

and I know how important
nutrition is in food.

And so I figured I'd
just dig in and see

if it could be fixed.

Hey, Ed, I'm Jill Shaw.
- Hi, Jill,

what's going on?
- So nice to meet you.

- Come on in.
- Thank you for having us.

- Hey Ross, how are you?
- Nice to meet you.

- This sounds awesome
and ambitious,

but it's awesomely complicated
and awesomely ambitious

at the same time, right?
- Right.

- So unfortunately...
- That's the only things

we do, we decided.
- Go big or stay home.

- Exactly.
- I mean, that's it.

- So tell me.
- The food service industry

as a whole is in a massive
crisis for skilled labor, right?

- Really?
- Oh my goodness.

You have the world of not to
be diminishing or condescending

but the lunch lady, that
can be a guy or a woman

and they have a very short
list of tricks, right,

and they know what
they know and one thing

that lunch ladies and men
don't like to do is change.

You're asking a woman who's
later in their career path

to say, "Okay, well,
now this is on the wall

"and I'm touch
screening something,"

versus where'd my
on-off switch go?

And look, the reality is
the plumbing side of things

gives us a heart
attack every project.

Engineers will tell you
nothing can be done.

It's too much trouble,
especially maintenance guys

on site, because they just
want their life to be easy.

- And then right
now there's a rule

that says that schools can't
deal with uncooked meat

so they bring in all the
animal proteins cooked?

- Mmhmm, food safety
is a constant concern.

They're trying to
hedge their bets

and bringing in raw
chicken in their mind

is like nuclear waste.
- "Why are we dealing?", yeah.

- But there's a
brave world out there

that deals with raw chicken
on a daily basis successfully,

so, I mean, but that's how
we've got to where we are,

right, that's how we've
gotten to the meals

that these kids are eating.
- Right.

- Dumb it down, make it
safer, make it cheaper,

reduce the labor load,
how do you feed 200 kids

with two lunch ladies?

In their mind, you call
Tyson and tell 'em to send me

fully cooked chicken fingers.

- Yep, now let's
go in the freezer.

Hey, does she need yogurt?

I have more yogurt, this is
all that's left til tomorrow.

You've gotta see
downstairs, Colby,

is there any barbecue sauce?

This job is not an easy job.

So we need turkey sandwiches
and egg salad sandwiches

and we can make 'em, right?

We all work hard, at
the end of the day.

So no matter what school you
go to, everybody's working.

You don't see people
standing around.

Linda, what'd you do with
that case of butter yesterday?

(upbeat music)

All right, there's
only like four left.

(upbeat music)

(kids murmur)

We range from 1100 to 1200 kids,

today will probably
be over 1100.

The first lunch will be
like three something,

then we go back in there,
we cook the second lunch

and then we cook in between
second and third lunch

for third lunch. So that
way it's a little easier

because everything's packaged.

All that stuff that's in
those packages is processed,

not like us, I think
we do a good job.

The food, the presentation.

(upbeat music)

You get to see the kids and
they're smiling, they're happy

and they know what
they're eating!

And when they come
back for a second

and you can't give
it, you feel bad but

come back for second
is a good thing.

- That means you're
doing something right.

- Yep.
- Yes and no

because maybe they're coming
back for seconds

because they're hungry, they
don't have food at home, so...

- You're right.

Half of these kids
don't have a home.

- A lot of kids, they say, "I
eat here and I go to work."

- "And I haven't eaten
since I ate here yesterday."

That's what they say,
that's what they say,

say, Jennie, I ate lunch and
that was the last thing I ate,

and I say to 'em, Honey,
if I could give it to you,

I'd give you
anything you wanted,

but I can't give it to you.

- Maybe some of them dropped
out because their

parents are sick.

(kids murmur)

- Gardner Pilot Academy is
located in

Allston, Massachusetts. We are a
Boston Public School.

We're very close to
Harvard University.

(kids murmur)

Allston is an incredibly
diverse community,

while it's perceived as serving
primarily college students,

it is rated as the third
highest poverty rate

in the city of Boston.

When you start to actually
hear the stories of children,

where food insecurity is
such a real thing for them,

it's beyond what you can fathom
when that's not your reality.

The number one reason kids
come to the nurse's office

is due to stomach
pain and most of that

is related to symptoms
around hunger.

(kids murmur)

- [Girl] I eat broccoli,
I love broccoli.

- [Jill] You love broccoli, do
you like the school broccoli?

- No, it's like watery.
- Tastes watery.

- [Jill] You're
right about that.

- So I think it became a
dream about 10 years ago.

As a principal, you have to
be responsive to your kids

and your families and
wanting a kitchen here

was not something I was
like, oh, as a principal

I want to go and
build a kitchen.

It was every year
talking to children

and them telling you
what are the things

that don't work here.

- I like cooked food,
not microwaved food.

- Some of us don't
even eat the whole day

'cause the food's bad.

- Did you eat this?
- Nope.

- [Jill] So what did you
really eat for lunch today,

this and a cheese stick
is what you had for lunch?

- Yeah, yeah.
- And nothing else?

- Nope.
- All I had was milk.

- [Jill] All you had for
lunch for today was milk?

- Yep.
- I had carrots and milk.

- What did you have, Carl?
- Carrots and milk.

- [Jill] Carrots and
milk, what did you have?

- I ate the sun butter.
- You had the sun butter?

- What I had?
- What did you have for lunch?

- Four cheese sticks
and milk. (laughs)

- Four cheese sticks and
milk and nothing else

for lunch today?
- Yep.

- What did you
have for breakfast?

(somber music)

- [Woman] You have reached
Boston Public School's

Facilities Management

and Planning and
Engineering Department.

- Jill had approached
me and was just starting

the Shah Family Foundation
and asked if I would

be the first executive director.

- All right, is that time
confirmed, 10 o'clock?

Having Ross involved
in this was critical.

He is from the Boston
Public School system,

he understands how to
navigate his way around,

he understands how to
move through a bureaucracy

and get things done.

- Change is incredibly
hard in any large system

and there's so many
different entities involved.

I was told some things
when I was a teacher

and then a principal and then
a central office administrator

and even as a parent,
that the way things were

was because it's
just the way it is,

is what I was used to hearing.

(downbeat rock music)

- We want every kid in
Boston to get fresh food

made daily, made locally
which is highly nutritious

and is delicious.

That's step one.

The only way that you
can get better food

is you need to have kitchens.

The missing link in
solving this riddle

is getting kitchens
into every school.

The schools in Boston
are some of the oldest

in terms of buildings and
facilities in the country.

The reason there are no kitchen
is that when they were built

kids would go home
at midday for lunch.

[Archive Narrator] Healthy
scholars need healthy food.

- In 1945, Congress started
the school lunch program

because during the draft,
the number one medical reason

that otherwise qualified
Americans couldn't serve

was poor nutrition.

- [Archive Narrator] The school
now has a fully equipped

lunch room where hot food
is served to all pupils

at a nominal charge.

- [Dariush] So the
government moved

to really rapidly address

undernutrition and they
were very effective.

- [ Archive Narrator] For
the poorer children,

there's no charge at all.

- [Dariush] They moved to
ensure that food was produced

in more quantity and it was
produced as cheaply as possible

- [Narrator] 600 quality
wieners pass through

the famous hot dog highway.

- [Dariush] Unintentionally
at the same time,

food technology was advancing.

We had an explosion of
highly processed foods

rich in starch and sugar
and sodium and trans fat.

- [ Archival Narrator] Mmm,
yummy.

- And so we went
from undernutrition,

too little nutrients,
to poor nutrition

in terms of too
many processed foods

and that's really the crisis
that's facing us today.

- [Jill] In the 1970s,
the city started cooking

for the public schools
from a central commissary

serving prepackaged,
processed meals.

- This here area used to be
what we call our can room.

We used to have a
large can opener here,

we'd bring 100 cases
of applesauce in here

or 100 cases of
pineapple chunks,

staff would open
up the applesauce,

we'd have blending tanks,

they would dump it right
into the blending tanks,

we'd add starch and
the blending tanks

would attach to our server lines

so it would pump out
applesauce or fruit cocktail,

whatever would be
on our cold line.

- Just to make it more thicker

so it wouldn't be,
to make it more thick

when you're eating it so
it wouldn't be as watery.

In 2005, we were using
the same equipment

that was installed in 1971, so

a decision was made by the
district to outsource the meals.

- The current vending
meal provider is a company

called Whitson's.

They ship to the state of
Boston from Long Island.

So I understand there is
a $25 billion industry

to feed kids in schools

and when venture and business

see that kind of an opportunity

of course they're
gonna go after it.

But the onus is on us to
figure that out because it

doesn't feel right, it's
a US government subsidy

that's supporting the
food that goes into

these kids' mouths and it's
also paying for plastic wrap

and transportation and logistics

and operational
inefficiencies and profit.

Some segment of every dollar
is paying for those things

instead of for broccoli and
chicken and, you know, food.

(kids shout)
(bell rings)

- Many Spanish kids
come to this school

and when we serve Spanish
food, they don't like it.

Hamburger and hot
dogs, chicken nugget,

chicken tenders, those
are the favorite food.

They're looking for
American food. (laughs)

(kids murmur)

- We have the opportunity
to feed all our children

at no cost, you would
think everybody's coming.

They're not, so what is it?

(kids murmur)

- Every meal that's
taken is reimbursed

by the federal government
and so participation rate

is very important to
the school system.

- Take your food,
come here, honey,

you have to take
your food, okay?

- For every lunch that we serve,

we get reimbursed about
$3.28 or 29 cents.

I'd live and die by
that little budget

because the more
meals you serve,

the bigger your budget becomes.

(bell dings)
(downbeat music)

- If you do the math
on 57,000 students,

you're in the like $85
million a year range.

It's not a bad budget.

(bell dings)

But, I mean, the crazy
thing is that if a child

takes a plate off the line
and types in their number,

it counts as a meal,
like, they could dump it

in the trash.

(kids murmur)

- To get a reimbursable meal,

we have to serve
five components,

a meat, meat alternate, a
grain, a fruit component,

vegetable component and dairy.

Students need to take three
out of the five components.

And at least one
of those components

has to be a half cup
fruit or vegetable.

(bell dings)

- There is nothing,
not in hospitals,

not on military bases,
not the food that goes out

to the supermarkets,
not anything compares

to the level of regulation
and oversight in school food.

- Vegetables are broken down
into different subgroups.

The red orange subgroup,
dark leafy greens,

legumes, we have
to offer starches.

Breakfast is a
little bit trickier.

We offer eight to 10
servings of grain.

We can only offer protein
sources like eggs,

cheese, yogurt,
for all our grain,

to offer 3/4 of a cup a day.

And over the course of the week

that is three and 3/4 cup.
- Okay, all right.

- I'll start over.

(kids murmur)

It's not like I didn't
grow up eating Twizzlers

and all this prepackaged
stuff, I love all of the stuff

that the food industry created,
it tastes great, but this is so

inherently critical to
the success of a kid.

When the child gets good
food, it's transformative

in the classroom,
they're more teachable.

(kids murmur)

(upbeat music)

- The USDA doesn't
regulate sugar,

so there's no
regulation to go by.

* Sugar

* Oh honey honey

* You are my candy girl

* And you got me wanting you

- In the beginning of the year,
we did not allow maple syrup

We tried to get the kids
to use applesauce instead

and our participation went down

and we brought back maple syrup.

* Pour a little
sugar on me honey *

* Pour a little
sugar on me baby *

- Did you ever think school
lunch would be this difficult?

(woman laughs)

* Honey honey

* Sugar sugar

* Sugar sugar

* Honey honey

* Sugar sugar

* You are my candy girl

* My oh my *

- When you have a
certain level of stature

in the community, you
can call on exactly

who you want to call on
to help so I was able

to call the mayor's office
and 'cause the access

came from the top,
every door opened.

All right, what do we got here?

Jeepers creepers, well.

There's 80 satellite
schools in Boston.

Satellite kitchens
have nothing in them.

- This is my place
where I work. (laughs)

You see?

- Where do they walk,
they walk in and out?

So the notion is that we would
take full service kitchens

which we call hubs and
we would attach to them

a series of spokes which
are satellite kitchens.

The hub would prep
the food every day,

it gets delivered out
to the satellite schools

and the satellite schools
would cook them, finish them

and serve them to kids.

(downbeat music)

- The concept was to put
a small finishing kitchen

that you often see in
fast casual restaurants.

In 400 square feet in a basement

of a school that
was built in 1900.

- Electrical.

I told the city that we could
fund the transformation,

we could be a bridge as
they move from one system

to a new system.

We felt that if we could
figure this out here,

then other cities would
be able to replicate

what we've done.

- How are you doing?
- Good, and you?

- The city advised us,
start in East Boston.

Choose three schools
in East Boston

and work with East Boston

High School to be the hub.

And so we're looking
at the Bradley School,

the PJ Kennedy and the
Early Education Center

in East Boston, the
spokes, if you will,

so a hub and spoke model.

- If we want to put a salad
bar in both of these places,

can we do that, like is
there a space to do that?

- I'm dead set against
salad bars in schools.

For food safety, the
issue is the sinks.

- Yeah, the issue is the sinks.

(somber music)

So some of the chefs
that we were working with

have told us about
these combination ovens

so they're a combination
of steam and heat.

They're kind of magical
in terms of what that does

to food, it can make food
look fried but it's not fried.

And these things taste
unbelievably good.

This is what we're
understanding, combi ovens,

so you could finish,
to reheat, finish,

you need a cold
serving area to do.

- Almost every chef we've
spoken to said that's --

Yeah.

- One of the big goals that
the student leadership team,

we've been really
actively working on

is how do we improve
the quality of lunches?

So this is your
chance to really think

about how do we change,
redesign breakfast and lunch?

What's the food gonna look like,

what's the kitchen gonna look
like, what's gonna happen?

- Ooh, I like this idea.
- I mean, like a salad bar.

- You know, how Subway has
their pick your own sandwich?

- [Jill] Billy kept saying
to me, "you gotta meet Erica,

she's just like you."

- So like middle schoolers
would get a bigger plate

than lower grades?

- [Jill] I don't know if
the first time we met,

she actually knew that
we were also interested

in kitchens and food but
for her it was fundamental.

- Like today, they had
that sun butter sandwich,

an apple in plastic and carrots

and if they don't like
that, that's what they got.

- I mean, my hope
would be that we could,

we could duke this out later,
but there would be salad bars

and then there would
be a hot service line

but the hot service
line would be delivered.

- Based on my experience and
I'm not saying I'm right,

well, I am right about this.

(women laugh)

I like the idea of a salad
bar and I said this to Jill

behind the line,
for food safety.

- Totally fine, I don't
care how they get it.

- Especially with the
norovirus, it's just.

- Fine, they don't have
to do it themselves.

I'll have someone
give it to them.

It's like if they could have
an option or add to that.

Like if you're an eighth
grader and you're starving,

a sun butter sandwich
ain't gonna do it.

- I think everybody has
an interest in supporting

the Gardner and Erica's
leadership on this.

But Allston Brighton went
outside of the initial scope

of the hub and spoke program.
And so separate from that

initial project, it
would have to be named

as an additional project and an
additional procurement process

would have to happen.

- Our level of
readiness is there.

Whatever's gonna be piloted,

how can we be a
part of the solution

and I agree, we want to
fix it for all 54,000 kids

across the district.
Like, where can we fit

inside a bigger plan?
- Right.

So let me, we have a
meeting with Laura tomorrow,

we'll get back to you.
- Absolutely,

that would be great, yeah.
- Just ask,

we can figure it out.

- So we're gonna do
a quick test here.

We're gonna put these in
for about five minutes

with the fan ramping up,
again, auto reversing,

right, you're gonna get
the best of both worlds.

- Could you do the chicken
and the broccoli together?

- You could.
- You know,

so first of all, we
got to buy in from Billy

on the equipment, we had him
go out and test combi ovens.

We had all this pushback
on combination ovens

a while ago.

- What's it, like a fan?
- Yeah, so it's fans

in the back.

- [Jill] When he saw today's
version, he liked 'em.

- We wanted to try to
prove a proof of concept

that could show that
we could actually,

Boston can cook for Boston.

- [Ross] Right now I've got my
steam temperature set at 195.

- [Ross] We knew that the city
of Boston was talking about

potential investments
into infrastructure

in the Boston public schools.
- Put my product in.

- [Ross] So the pressure we are
faced with was let's do this

in the right timing so
the city could make this

part of their investment.

- So where is the cut?

Right there, oh.

At PJK, we need a vent guy.

And we need a plumber.

At EEC, we needed a plumber.

We still need a contractor
to install the exhaust fans

at PJK and Bradley.
- Right now, it looks like

we might be here at
six a.m. tomorrow.

- We had about two months to
have the equipment delivered.

- They've broken up into
pieces. Muscle. Muscle.

- [Ross] The construction
done to install the equipment

in the schools.

- So you're getting
a brand new cooler,

brand new refrigerator,
brand new freezer,

combination oven.

So all of this happens soon,
starting like next week

and then over the summer
is when they'll deal

with all the rest of it.
- Perfect, okay.

- All right?
- Great.

- We're gonna make
it a brand new PJK.

- Yes, I can't wait.

- Anywhere along the
way, we may decide,

oh my God, this thing is
totally not cost effective

and it's not gonna work,
because we got to collect

a bunch of data, like what's
it gonna take to get it right

for four consecutive Wednesdays.

I find being an entrepreneur
really exciting.

I like not exactly
knowing where I'm going,

I like that there's a bunch
of different ideas to test,

I like that you might
fail, I like even more

that you might succeed, but
I like being in that space.

So we just need a truck and
a driver to help take food

from East Boston High
School and deliver it

to three schools, what
if we just call Uber?

- [Jill] Really, the
driver has to be?

- I don't know,
let's look it up.

(rock music)

- Alright, bye..
Alright, we gotta roll!

- Thank you.

- The FDA told
Nashoba Brook Bakery

that they needed to remove
love from their label

when it's listed
under ingredients

and the FDA gave 'em a
warning and said love

is not an ingredient,
which I don't agree with,

love has a vibration and
I think it's impactful.

- We're talking
about FDA here, guys,

like if you start letting
shit in like love,

where does it stop?

- There's definitely,
there's a vibration to love.

- I'll just argue
that it doesn't belong

on an ingredient list. (laughs)

- [Jill] What's an
ingredient, though?

It has to be a physical thing?
- Yes.

- [Jill] But what's physical
'cause everything's energy?

- Um, Ingredients are physical.

(Jill laughs)

- Yesterday's breakfast, I
didn't get to see the sugar,

the sugar content
was in a wrapper,

a wrapped up
processed round thing.

And then there was a fruit
cup, not a fresh fruit cup,

fake fruit and
that was breakfast.

- It's not fake fruit, just
to throw that on the table.

It's real fruit in there, so.

We just want to
be aware of that.

- Why is Boston so tribal?

And Boston is very tribal.

- We deal with kids.

You're never going to
please every single kid.

- [Louisa] That friction that
you see seems to be real.

- You are still going to keep
doing this satellite thing

forever if you don't change it.

- [Louisa] You know, people
don't want to be on a committee,

they want to be the
star of the committee.

- So we kind of gave
up an idea of having a,

what we call a hub and a spoke.

There was an idea of doing
something like the hub and spoke

project, years and years ago,

but it didn't get
off the ground.

it's a pilot, to see
how it would work.

This time around we had
the drive and the funding

to move forward.

- So with financial support.
- This financial support

comes from the Family
Foundation.

The Shah Family Foundation...

I thought, this is a wealthy
woman's desire and drive

to get involved in
yet another project...

I've seen a lot of
these come and go.

- We're really not talking about

what we're putting on the plate.

This is to get to
the plate, right,

let's talk about what's
really on the plate right now.

- It's not because
I want to give back.

I don't feel like I
owe the world anything.

I don't, I mean,
the problem is like

you can't turn on a dime
when you're working 100%

with the US
government subsidies.

I just feel best when I am
in it to help fix things.

It's a big school system
and it's baby steps

and you gotta go
where you have support

so that you can prove out a
model and learn as much as

you need to learn so that you
can do it comprehensively,

but I don't know
how you change it.

This is a big problem
and we think that we have

a solution to it.

We're not going away.

(kids murmur)

- It's 93.8 cents for each
peanut butter and jelly sandwich

How many components are
in the peanut butter

and jelly sandwich?
- Three.

- Okay, I hear three, I hear
grain and I hear protein

and I hear fruit.

Jelly is not a fruit, I'm
just letting you know,

it's not a fruit.

One of my goals before
we launched the pilot

was that we wanted
all of our employees

to be part of the training,
so we did a really

robust boot camp because
moving from a satellite serving

process to a cooking process
is completely different.

- What if they
don't take a fruit?

In our school, some kids just
take a peanut butter jelly

and a milk.

- Then it's not a
reimbursable meal.

You must have a
fruit or a vegetable

as part of a reimbursable meal.

(upbeat music)

- Have any of you
guys eaten tofu here?

It's gonna be a challenge
to not only get kids

to be excited about it,

but it's gonna be a
challenge to figure out

how we're gonna cook it to
get kids excited about it.

- [Jill] So I reached
out to Ken Oringer.

- So put in a little
bit of paprika.

- [Jill] Ken, of
course, is a chef,

he runs incredible
restaurants in the city

and around the world.

- [Ken] The important thing in
my opinion to make tofu tasty

is to make sure that
you drain out as much

of that water as possible.

- One day they just showed
up, Jill came in and said

it was gonna start here.

- So the ordering,
receiving, the decisions

about how much food goes
out and how many pans,

all the chopping, the dicing,
the slicing, the mixing,

the assembling.

- They didn't say, do
you want to or don't you,

they were like, this is
what we're gonna do now.

We're like, okay, we'll do it.

(upbeat music)

But we learned from the chef.

- No, don't be shy,
don't be embarrassed

and if you have any
questions, we're here for you.

- [Jennie ] I liked seeing
the girls getting involved.

- Perfect.

- [Jennie] And the oven's great.

(group murmurs)

I was excited.

- I mean, I wish they
had this kinda stuff

when I was growing up.

- Remember the government
chicken in a can?

It looked like tuna?

That was for the
poor people, though.

If you were rich,
you didn't have that,

only the poor people have that.

(group laughs)

I was one of those poor people.

- Yeah, we's poor
but we's proud.

When we would get our
grilled cheese sandwiches,

they would be inside
the plastic all burnt

to the plastic and they'd
just toss it on a tray.

- Yeah.
- Oh yeah.

That's Jersey for you.

- We only know East
Boston, me, her, her, her.

Me and Gabrielle,
we're here 23 years,

I grew up with her
parents, Nancy,

I knew her when she was
in her mother's womb

and Corinne has the
same relatives as me

and we all graduated here too,

so we all know, but we're
all in the same neighborhood.

- I hope you're not offended
by us white coats coming in.

We're not trying to show
you what to do or not.

- The blue shirts aint afraid
of the white coats, okay?

(group laughs)

We ain't afraid of the white
coats.

- You have cilantro?
- Oh, I think so.

- Because we can add
that to chopped tomatoes,

we can make a nice
salsa for the tacos too.

I love this because to be
able to cook fish tacos,

they have a huge Latino
population in here,

so it's kind of a no brainer
that we should serve something

where we can get them fish
which a lot of these kids

don't have the opportunity
to eat a lot of fish

and then we can serve
with Chipotle mayonnaise

and fresh tomato salsa
and hopefully guacamole

and they can see how you
can make nutritious food

taste really great.
- Ken Oringer going rogue

in the kitchen,
Jennie, don't look,

Jennie, don't look.
- We usually don't use salt.

(group laughs)

But it's ours, it's our
personal salt for us.

- I brought it with me.

- When we eat, we add salt.

- [Jill] Oh my God,
you have your own salt?

- We have our own salt.
- Salt in moderation

is not a bad thing.

Yeah, look at this, 24% in
this but we're not allowed

to put salt on the tomato salsa,
you know how much salt

24% is, it's like.
- It's a lot of salt.

- [Ken] Yeah, and I think
all the salt is being used

in all the wrong places.
- Yep.

- [Jennie] Oh my God,
those are beautiful.

You see how golden they are?

Okay, ready?
- Ready?

- Ready?

(tacos crunch)

- [Jennie] Oh, it's good,
that sauce is delicious.

- And with the
fish it's so good.

- Oh my God, I'm
on a diet. (laughs)

(kids shriek)

- [Erica] Okay, so we
wanted to get back to you

about the kitchens.

- Yes.
- So over in East Boston

we're just placing the
order now for freezers,

fridges, hot and
cold serving tables,

what's called the combi oven,

this is probably about
$50,000 of equipment.

- Okay.
- So we are happy

to make a donation of
all of that equipment to

Gardner as well.
- That's awesome.

- Yay.
- That is really exciting.

Yeah, I have a big
glowing smile on my face

which is what I was hoping
you were gonna tell me today

but I wasn't sure,
that's amazing.

(group cheers)

- [Jill] Gardner just scored a
goal on the boys' soccer team

and just tied up the game.
- That's fantastic.

- I know, that was great.

Well, this is awesome,
thank you so much.

- You're very welcome.
- Good luck this week.

- [Jill] That's
great news. (laughs)

- [All] GPS, GPS.

- We just got $50,000.

- Whoo!
- I know.

- That's awesome.

(kids chant "GPS")

(gentle music)

- Take the chicken over there
and start laying chicken.

Now we're going to the
next school, ready,

we're on PJ Kennedy,
let's go, PJ Kennedy,

we're gonna do the apples first.

Linda, where's their cucumbers?

Deb, leave my girls
alone, they're working.

* They're working
hard for their money *

(laughs) Right, Elsa?
- Yeah.

- I was supposed to go
to the gym this morning,

like I didn't go 'cause
I was thinking of this.

The food we get delivered
here, the carrots,

all the vegetables,
all the fruit

and we would have to do
temperatures and logs and--

we just prep it,
put it together,

they tell me how
many they needed

and we'd portion it out
and put it in cameos

and send it off on the truck.

- Go as far as you want to.

- 10 minutes, everybody.

Thank you, honey, go try a fish.

- [Ross] The spring pilot

was really an all hands
on deck experience.

We had food nutrition
service staff on site,

we had the foundation
staff on site.

- Green apples.
- We have green apples.

- [Ross] We were serving food
on hot and cold serving lines

for the first time.

- Are we really putting
chocolate milk on show?

Are you kidding me?

- Here they come!

How are you guys?

- Okay, come on, guys,
let's go, very exciting,

let's go, let's go!

- Raise your hand if
you want a cheeseburger

Cheeseburger, who
wants a cheeseburger?

- Cheeseburger.

- Chef, we're gonna need some
more cheeseburgers.

- Hi lovey, would you like
meatballs or chicken salad

or chicken? Would
you like meatballs?

Would you like meatballs?

What we wanted to make sure
of was that you could provide

fresh, nutritious food
that kids love under

the price of vended meals.

Chicken Caesar salad.

Our goal was to make
sure that the city

could operate this
within the subsidy.

(upbeat music)

- You're gonna try the fish too?

- All right, okay,

open your mouth,
I'll squeeze it in.

Want some spicy special sauce?

Yeah, two drops, three
drops, all right.

- It's very good.

(kids chatter)

- Everything is good.
- Everything is good?

- Yeah.
- Everything.

- They like it better than
McDonald's, which is probably

the best compliment ever,
but we are different

from McDonald's, we are a
highly regulated program

so our hamburger buns
are whole grain and our

beef patties are lower in
sodium and so is our cheese,

lower in sodium and fat.

- The best lunch I had
like in school for years

and I've been here three years.

- Three years?
- Yeah.

- [Laura] So we're
exposing them to something

that they recognize but
it's also nutritious.

(upbeat music)

- [Jill] It blew kids' minds.

(upbeat music)

- Good!

- [Jill] You know, you can see

how it's completely
transformative.

- What are we gonna
tell the kids tomorrow

when they're gonna eat
that crappy food tomorrow?

That's something you gotta do.

- How did they make it?

Oh, they cook it?

I like it, I want to
eat this every day.

- This is just a pilot program.

- You guys know
what you're doing,

we all know what we're doing.

We need people that are not
you guys doing the work.

- [Woman] And I think that
will come with the next phase.

- You also know, you
need your employees,

I need my employees
back here working,

that's what we
should've had today

to really see if
it's gonna work.

- It might not be exactly
how we would do it next year,

but this is like just a
pilot, so it's a kickoff.

- Mmm.

- I have three of these,
if you need these,

you know what I need to get.

I don't know what they're
gonna do for hours.

For the satellite schools.

There's no way we can
cook 600 more kids

and not get more
hours, there's no way.

- [Man] There were
only six in this oven?

Should be a full 10.

- We're just barely
making it, sometimes

we don't even get a break.

But I know these women
will have my back

and we'll have each other,
we'll make it as a team work.

Yeah, do that.

- A lot of people
was here today.

Everybody was excited
because everything is new.

But it's a lot of work to
do because it's extra work.

- [Woman] Really?

Lots of stuff.

- Very casual, but just to
debrief on anything, anything

'cause we've got two
months to plan for how we

go back to executing in the
fall, so I think anything

we can just get
on the table now.

- The only problem I
had is like every day

there was changing
something in the menu,

they were like, okay,
we don't want peaches,

they don't have peaches
'cause they were frozen

so we're gonna do watermelon,
so we need 200 watermelon,

now I'm like, okay, how many
watermelon do I need to cut

which I didn't know how
many watermelon I need

because we don't serve
watermelon, really.

- Right, menu changes needed
to be more consistent, right?

- Yeah.
- Okay now,

let me just get your
reaction to this.

The beef that we
order right now,

that we cook down,
it comes salted,

it comes prepared, all we're
doing is heating it up,

what if we bought a roast
beef and cooked it down?

You end up, if you
do the calculations,

you save half a
million dollars on beef

and you get a better product.

- My concern would be the
handling of the fresh food.

It's a much higher risk
to get foodborne illness

and we've never ever had
an outbreak here in BPS.

It's gonna eliminate
a lot of people.

- A lot of people
are not certified.

- That are not qualified
to cook that kind of food.

- You could just
hire a cook off team.

It would just be a
different time of day.

- You're gonna have to go up
a lot more on your pay grades.

I mean. (laughs)

And that's across the board
because you can't have

a cook making more than a
manager, who's responsible

for running the whole show.

- We have to make sure
that we're understanding

if we're changing the position,

then you want to make sure
that you put in the person

in there that can
adapt to the position,

who can do it and
wants to do it.

- Right.
- You've got three,

with the possibility of
having two to three people.

- I can't see any
of them doing that.

- And if they're
kind of interested,

kind of qualified, kinda not,

they're just kinda doing
it because they feel

they have no other options,
guess where the weak links start

(woman murmurs inaudibly)

- No, never.

- We need to look at how
we're gonna train our staff

to be able to meet those needs.

(upbeat music)

(kids giggle)

- So right now we're sort
of on a waiting period.

We've got some funding, we've
raised a significant amount

of interest and donors
and we're ready to go

and we're in that place
where right now we're waiting

for the total number
of what it would cost.

I actually have right
here the plans of what

some potential ideas
are, so the architect

was able to come up
with different proposals

of how the kitchen would
look and now he's waiting

to hear from the plumber,
from the electrician,

some of the other
technical sides.

I'm also waiting to hear
back from some central people

in the city, lots of
emails have gone out,

lots of phone calls
have gone out.

I haven't gotten any
official notification

of what's actually happening.

- Laura did not
respond back to me,

so finally I texted
her, she texted back.

I got your response to the
email, I'm sorry I'm dealing

with a couple of nightmares,
but that she'd call me at one.

(laughs) So it's
1:20, so anyway.

We felt like if we could
push hard to get them cooking

and delivering food, before
the end of the school year,

you would just use that
momentum to take you

right through the summer, right?

(laughs) It's so interesting
what happened instead,

instead it literally just...

There was silence, there
was absolute silence.

- We can't get a call scheduled.

We can't get on the same page
around menu or procurement.

We get constant pushback
around equipment

as if, like, there's
only one way to do this

which is about two
decades old thinking.

School systems are not in
the business of doing food.

- Mmhmm, not knowing whether
or not the support was there

at the higher levels
of the school system

and in the city, that
just made us waver.

- The people in the
system can't keep up.

- Because you're not gonna
get anywhere without support.

Right.

- The system loses
focus, gets distracted,

goes to a different fire, and

leaves the operating
dollars on the table.

- As we were working
through the logistics

of the east Boston
hub and spoke project,

we impacted three small
satellite schools.

That's just a small
subset representative

of the entire district.

We still have to have
a program in place

to be able to provide vended
meals to our children.

All 85 of those
satellite schools.

- The contract was up, the
bid process came around

and there were three
bidders, Whitson's,

which was the incumbent,
Preferred Meals,

and Revolution Foods.

It wasn't exactly a
transparent or open process.

We assumed that essentially
it was another sandbagging

attempt to just give the
contract again to Whitson's,

that the decision to give
it to the same vendor

was already in the bag.

- There you go, this
is big boy school, man,

there you go, big boy school.

(upbeat music)

- Hi, how are you guys,
it's good to see you.

You ready?
- I'm always ready.

- Revolution Foods won the
contract for this school year.

It was a good step
for the district

because Revolution
Foods represented

a lot of the things that
we wanted in reference to

clean labels,
cleaner ingredients.

- What's up, hi!

How's lunch?
- Good.

- Is it good?

- Yes I am.

- The mayor of Boston.

(upbeat music)

- If we look at it per meal,
it's probably about 21,

22 cents more per plate,
but as a committee

and as a city, we evaluated
all of the proposals

that were presented
to us and we thought

that this was the best value.

- I knew that the school system

was most likely not gonna
use the current vendor

because there was real concern
about the quality of food.

I was surprised that
the school system

agreed to a contract
with a vendor

that was higher than the
USDA reimbursable rate.

- Oh, it's so much better,
yes, it's much much better.

We're gonna figure it out,
we've budgeted for it.

We knew we wanted something
that was higher quality

and we knew we needed to
pay for it and if it's about

getting our young
people something better,

I think it's worth it.

- You should have one,
it's good, I'm telling you.

- We knew people would be
smitten with Revolution Foods,

at least for the
first few weeks.

But we also knew that
people would get tired

of Revolution Foods,
this is the same thing

that's happened with
every food vendor

who's come into Boston.

- It's way more expensive for
the city to go with Rev Foods

so unless your food is
substantially better,

substantially, like basically
unless they've solved

the riddle, so yeah, I'm a
little surprised. (laughs)

But I'm a sales and
marketing girl at heart

so I also commend them
on their ability to win

the contract.

(kids murmur)

- There was some hope
that this new vendor,

it was supposed to be
much healthier options

for our kids and it
does provide more choice

but we'll see and take a look at

what they actually are getting.

And as you can tell,
there is a lot of

plastic, so this is,
what is this today?

I actually don't even know
what it is from the top of it.

This would be the
pizza, so again.

Oh, this is the third
option and this is?

- That's turkey and cheese.

- Turkey and cheese what?
- On a flatbread.

- Turkey and cheese on a
flatbread, so I'm a kid,

I look at this, I have
no idea what this is.

This is it, this is our
food services right now.

(kids murmur)

Sometimes in urban
education and people who are

often marginalized
in our society,

we think that if we give
them just a little bit

they'll be okay.

It may be healthier
than what we had before,

but it's not good enough.

Don't bring them, take them
and if I see them again,

I take them.

* Yo

* We're gonna show y'all
what we be snacking on *

* You dig?

* Okay

* Hot Cheetos and Takis

* Hot Cheetos and Takis

* I can't get enough

* Of these Hot
Cheetos and Takis *

- When students are
younger, they'll eat what's

in front of them
because they're hungry

and that's what's given
and as they get older,

instead of eating a school
lunch that's provided,

they get small amounts
of change and they stop

at the corner store to buy a
dollar bag of Takis or chips.

* Hot Cheetos and Takis

* Hot Cheetos and Takis

- These Takis, which
are really bad for you,

they're chips, but
they're the in thing.

Where's your lunch,
did you give it away?

Who's eating your lunch?

- Javier.
- Javier ate the lunch?

- What do you think that
we need to do to help kids

understand, how do we help
you make better choices?

- I would just want better food.

- [Erica] We want to make
a deal, eat one of these,

you gotta eat something better
than potato chips, okay?

* Hot Cheetos and Takis, wow

* Snack, snack, snack

* Crunch

* Snack, snack, snack

* Munch

* Hot Cheetos and Takis

* Hot Cheetos and Takis

* You can catch me *

(phone rings)

- Hi Laura.
- I just want you

to be aware that the menu
that we had planned on,

lightly breaded
chicken, is on there.

- Well, no, I don't think so
because we had a discussion

about if we were going
to do frozen proteins,

then leave the frozen
proteins just as they are.

I think that was a
pretty clear point

and then tangerino
sauce, whatever that is

which is prepackaged,
that's why Ken spent

so much time teaching
sauces, so I don't know,

I don't know that we're
on the same page still.

- [Laura] The district is
in and moving this forward,

again, my apologies
that it is coming across

that we are not,
that's not the intent.

- I feel like the city has
either got to want to fix it

or they've got to
decide they don't,

that this is good enough,
that they've decided

that they're gonna pay
for this new contract

and it's gonna be good.

And then problem solved.

- Can I say one thing,
Laura, that has nothing to do

with this menu?

Yesterday, when we were
working on this saying

we need the ingredient list,
we need the menu items,

your team says, we won't
have it to you until tomorrow

and then when we get it,
it says we're gonna use leftover

fruits and vegetables and
we're gonna used canned crap.

That to me sends a message
that it's like I don't care

about this, right? We
will solve this issue,

but it's gonna happen
again next week,

it's gonna happen
again the week after.

If something does not
change with the team

taking this seriously.

I know you do, Laura,
but your team is not.

That's all I want to say.

- I understand.
- Okay.

- [Laura] And I hear
you loud and clear.

(upbeat music)

- [Ross] So I would move the hot

and the cold and switch 'em.

- Switch 'em, okay.
- 'Cause you're ending.

- 'cause we're gonna
end with the cheese.

- You're ending with the cheese.

- We can do that.

The summer had been challenging.

Scratch that, these
plugs don't line up.

But we were very
focused on making sure

that this project worked
and that we continued

the momentum that had
been made in the spring.

Perfect.

(upbeat music)

- Getting the new
vendor, Revolution Foods,

off the ground and ready
to start in the fall,

I think we just lost
a little bit of focus.

- Okay, we're here.

- So it was an opportunity
for me to be reminded

that this project
is really important.

- Have you guys made the
sauce for the chickpeas?

- We'll add the spinach once
we get it on the steam table

'cause it'll cook itself then.

- I wanna try one.
- You wanna try?

- Can I see what that is?
- What do you guys think?

- Is this Chinese food?
- Does it taste like Chinese?

It's kind of Indian
influenced, it's called

a garbanzo bean.
- Garbanzo?

- Garbanzo, right, you got it.

(kids squeal)

- All right, what
are you having?

A meatball sandwich,
pasta with meatballs,

or you can have a
vegetarian dinner.

- [Ross] During this pilot,

we maintained a
cafeteria manager

and then added a chef
in each of the schools.

- You want the pasta
and meatballs or the
meatball sandwich?

- Meatballs.
- All right.

- [Lauren] Santiago is really
passionate about cooking.

He's really passionate
about engaging the kids.

- [Santiago] Enjoy, you want
broccoli, what about broccoli?

- [Lauren] So I think it
was a good fit for him.

- But I know she doesn't
have bread over there.

- Rolls, we need 60 rolls.

(cash register beeps)

- [Santiago] You're gonna
have the same as him

or pasta with meatballs?

- I want pasta.
- You want meatballs?

- Really didn't get
a lot of the kids

that want to try that chickpea,

it's not a real
hit for the kids.

- Enjoy your lunch.

- I could see that
the pasta was going

a whole lot quicker
than the chickpea stew.

You have broccoli, you
have chickpea stew,

you have pasta, for how many?

- This is the last of the pasta.

- That's it?

How many kids?

- But your kids, you're gonna
feed 'em three more lunches?

Just pasta.
- Just pasta.

This is what happens,
right, when you try

new and innovative stuff, you
just gotta hope for the best,

prepare for the worst.

- What plan are we
on now, like plan C?

- [Woman] Oh yeah.

- Mmm.

I'm not happy,
that's true. (laughs)

I think you can see in my face.

This is too much,
that's too much work.

- With any kind of pilot,
any kind of changes,

some people can
absorb the change

and for some it's a
very drastic change.

What you were doing
one day a week

is now gonna be all the
way up to five days a week.

With Santiago being the
cook and with Maricela

being the manager, it
probably created some stress.

- [Man] I have a green
bean and a cauliflower.

- [Ross] We didn't have
enough time to really sit down

with each team and clarify
roles and responsibilities.

- You want a teriyaki
sauce on your chicken?

- Okay, teriyaki, yeah.

- Certainly there is
confusion and conflict.

- What is that?
- It's like a dessert.

It's like a pie.
- I want to try that.

- [Santiago] Okay.

- [Jill] The job's changed.

In some cases,
people were excited.

I think it was emboldening.
- That's the apple pie,

apple crisp.

- [Jill] And for others,
I think it was exhausting.

- [GPS] Stay to the left to
190 East Mass Pike, Boston.

* Early in the morning

* Wanna spread it on toast

* Peanut

* Peanut butter

* Peanut, peanut butter

(kids shout)

* Peanut, peanut butter

* And jelly

* Peanut *

(kids murmur)

- [Jill] You get to
serve this every day?

- Yes, we're now up to
five days a week right now.

This is our first week of
five day implementation.

- What do you think
of your new lunches?

They're good, you like
'em, do you like these?

They look so good.
- Yeah, we had

so many kids last year and
like behavior rates increase

after school because
they weren't eating,

they were starving and so
now they actually are eating

and there's much less problems.

It was wildly different.
- They can have

as much as they want?
- I'm pretty sure

they go by the federal
regulations for kids'

serving sizes and the
age range.

- Wow.

(kids speak foreign language)

- This is why I
feel such urgency,

yesterday there was this
new kid that just came in,

lost his mother, walked
home one day after school

to find that her and her
boyfriend had overdosed.

Yesterday before algebra class,

I find him on the third floor

and he looks at me and he
goes, miss, I'm just so hungry.

Whatever we're
doing isn't enough

and we have not gotten
the political power

or political movement
where people have taken

and paying attention to this.

- And don't you
have, you have funds?

- [Erica] We have $250,000
sitting in the bank.

- Right, so that seems
like it's really close.

- That's what I said.
- Right.

- I can't understand
this, that's double.

This can't be, like you moved
mountains in East Boston.

If you didn't move
those mountains,

we would still be
talking about it.

- Yeah.

- You know, at one time
it was raise the money

and we'll just kind
of have this happen

so then we were fighting
raising all this money,

we got all the money
and then it was like

even though we have the money,
no, we're not moving forward.

- Erica's school ended up
being a little bit more

complicated than we had
expected, we thought we could

simply install new equipment
in her current kitchen location

and the reality was that the
plumbing and the trenching

would be too expensive
and I think that's where

the project has gotten hung up.

- You wanna see?

- [Ross] There's so
much happening every day

that it's hard to know.

It's gonna happen.

- [Man] That's the family one.

- Thanksgiving was coming
up and so we just thought,

just throw something in
that celebrates the holiday.

Changes things up a little bit.

- Yeah, I'm gonna.

I don't know.

- Nobody told us that
Corinne was coming.

We didn't know Corinne
was part of this deal.

We just thought
we were doing it.

Corinne gets paid by food
service, but Jill's her boss.

- They never asked my
opinion on anything,

they just figured, okay, we're
gonna do it like this and

me and my girls
would run with it.

because it was part of our job.

Get a picture of that.

You smell it, I'm
taking a picture of that

'cause I'm not
working like this.

Somebody want to start
the parfaits for tomorrow?

Oh yeah, me and
her bumped a lot,

but when she came, we
had to treat her like

she's one of ours.

(both laugh)

(upbeat music)

There we go.

- We didn't think about it,

but it's her kitchen and
I don't think we (laughs)

teed that up very well,
I'm not sure that we really

kind of thoughtfully said,
here's what we're thinking

about doing for a day
and we're gonna need

to use your kitchen to
prep parts of the meal.

- Hi Santi.
(Santiago laughs)

- Hi Corinne.
- Okay, what else, honey?

- I've been here 23
years, I never did this.

Now we're running around at
four o'clock in the afternoon,

we're here cooking turkeys.

- Aren't you getting
paid, though?

- Nobody's getting paid,
just me and Martha right now,

they don't get nothing
extra, they work eight hours,

that's it! The
union's gonna step in

and the union's gotta say,
"Okay,

everybody's on the same page."

- Good, it's working out...

She doesn't talk to me.

No, no.

- She don't want to do
this, like nobody wants

to do the hard
work, right, Santi?

- Yeah.
- Yeah, nobody wants to do it.

- That's her problem,
really, she don't want...

- That's what a lot of
people's problems are.

- That's why she's
so against it.

- Yeah, she don't want
to cook, she don't want,

she didn't sign up
for that, she said.

These turkeys are raw,
right, food service is saying

they're not raw,
I go, they're raw,

she goes, "What do you
mean, they're raw?"

I go, do I speak
funny, they're raw.

They didn't know they were raw.

- Yeah.
- Corinne, you're my witness.

Gimme that, gimme that, that's
the stress ball. (groans)

(Jennie giggles)

Five, six, seven, 11,
12, 13, where's Nancy?

Nancy, can you count
this real quick?

Gotta go.

- So Kathy, what we
were talking about

is we would place a single
order to be delivered here

for all three schools,
Corinne would order,

Corinne would receive or
we would work out some way

to do that.

- Kathy Carney, the
president of the union,

wanted to know all the
labor that's involved

and make sure I'm fully
staffed, nobody's overworked,

and underpaid.
- Jennie has not been happy

with the way it's been going on.

- Okay.
- Right.

- Talk to me about that.
- She knows, I told her.

- [Kathy] We never agreed to
have someone from the outside

do our ordering and
all that stuff for us.

- Corinne came in and she
kinda tried to take over

but it's my kitchen.

- So we suggest they
bring in another person,

they hired Corinne.
- Corinne don't communicate

with me, if there's something,
she'll go on the computer

and communicate with
the Shah Foundation.

- [Kathy] But she's not
out of food service.

- Yeah, she is, she's paid.
- They hired her?

- Yep, Kathy, I just
found out today.

- [Kathy] Jennie, you need
to speak up, you need to talk

about everything that
you talked to us about.

- I did, all right.
- Because this is all

different from the
MOA that we agreed to,

but we were left in the
dark, Jennie was too.

We didn't know
what was going on.

- I'm very sorry
about that, Kathy,

I wasn't, I didn't realize that.

We're at the part
of the pilot now

where we've figured out how
things work at the spokes

so they're working really well,
yours is obviously amazing.

- Oh, thanks.
- Thank you.

You know, my entire
life in business,

it's been much more of a
game and so you just take

the straightest line
that you can to win.

- And I decided, you know,
I'm just gonna try something.

I will do my best to win
their trust by treating

everyone with love and kindness
and by listening and doing

all of these things
that took a lot of time.

So if you can hang in there.
- All right.

- I can't tell you how
appreciative we are.

- [Jill] And Maricela, we
didn't give her enough love.

(somber music)

I know my options, I will
find her another position

elsewhere, but if she
doesn't want to be here,

she doesn't have to be here.
- Right, right.

(somber music)

- [Jennie] Maricela,
she didn't make it.

(somber music)

- [Man] Okay, so you can
see, we can press it.

- [Jennie] And Naima, she
went to another school.

She didn't sign up to cook.

(somber music)

Melbi is the only
manager that made it.

- What are you gonna have,
chicken, chicken taco?

- Santi's fully staffed
and he's doing well.

(upbeat music)

(group murmurs)

We need a case of
bagels for Friday.

I work 50 hours a week

'cause I stayed for the two
hours for the hub and spoke.

(upbeat music)

Happy at my paycheck, yeah,
and happy that I had people

that wanted to do it.

And they made it work,
they made it work

because I can't do it all.

I do it for the kids, Santi.
- Yeah,

that's what we're all in it for.

- That's what I do it
for, I don't do it for me,

I don't do it for my girls,
I don't do it for Jill,

I do it for the kids.
- The kids, yeah.

- [Jennie] I supervised
Corinne and now I think

we would be lost without her.
- When he calls,

it goes like (imitates grinding)

- [Jennie] She's
right up there with us

and she's like one of us now.

(upbeat music)

They took away chicken
nuggets, chicken patties,

French fries, anything
breaded or anything deep fried

or whatever it was
that they were used to,

they just took it right away.

- Green beans and broccoli.
- Yeah, broccoli

is good for you.

- And they kinda adjusted,
the kids adjusted to the food

and I haven't seen
any complaints.

(kids murmur)

- This is the last hurdle.

The East Boston pilot has
demonstrated without a doubt

that you can deliver
fresh, healthy real food

that kids prefer and it
doesn't need to be vended.

- So PJK's up 23% and
the Bradley's up 10%

on days where we're
serving this year.

- Participation was
up, it was cheaper,

we understood how to
operationalize it,

these kitchens weren't
very expensive,

we'd answered a lot
of the big questions.

- Basically, the money
that we're saving

is like money that we have
after the reimbursement

so we're actually making money.

- We strongly believe that
both with philanthropic support

and with city
resources, we'll be able

to expand this project
across an entire city.

(suspenseful music)

- [Laura] This year,
we have a lot going on

in food and nutrition
services, starting off with...

- So we were very interested
in which direction

the school committee
was going to move in,

would the school committee
double down on Revolution Foods

and say that the future of
food be with a food vendor?

Or would the school committee
choose a longterm vision

of Boston cooking for Boston
with the hub and spoke model?

- The first project is the East
Boston hub and spoke project

It embodies everything
that we are doing

in focusing on our
school meal program

by resetting the standards
of how we provide meals

to our students. We have
awarded pre-plated meal

contracts to two leading
vendors. Revolution Foods

for breakfast and lunch meals

and Preferred Meals for
the after school programs.

- No offense to
Revolution Foods,

they're another provider
providing us food

covered with plastic.
Quite frankly,

I'm a thousand
times more excited

by the hub and spoke models
because that is creative,

it's different, it's
new, it's exciting,

it's bringing much fresher
food to our children.

Do not let bureaucracy
in Boston Public Schools,

no offense, superintendent, or
the city of Boston stop you.

This is gonna be how we
revolutionize food service

in Boston Public Schools.

- We should have something
in this deck that says

the time is now because we
have the backup of Rev Foods

for the next two and
a half years so like

it's an easy way to transition.

So the thing that keeps
me up at night right now

is how do we make sure
that this transformation

is actually a transformation?

That it becomes embedded,
that it's part of the DNA

of the city, that the city
believes this is foundational

to these kids, to education,
to their health and wellness

and that we'll never go back.

127 kitchens in three years,
are we gonna present that

to the mayor, like do we
want him to see the whole?

- Yes.
- Okay.

- Do we have a PowerPoint?
- Template, no.

- So shall we just make one?

- Over the last four years,
we have dedicated ourselves

together to Boston's progress
and we can be a power of

example to the nation and
the rest of the world.

(audience applauds)

In the next four years,
we're also gonna scale up

our new food pilot
program, that's working

at East Boston high
school, the Kennedy School,

the Bradley School and East
Boston's Early Learning Center

until every single
student in our district

gets two fresh nutritious
meals every single day.

(audience applauds)

(upbeat music)

Yep, yep, I'll do lettuce,
carrots, tomatoes,

and cucumbers. I want to thank
you guys for letting me come

here and have lunch with you
guys, it was awesome,

I ate everything, I notice some
people didn't have broccoli

on their plate, but
that's all right,

broccoli's like the best
vegetable in the world.

This is an equalizer,
having nutritious meals

in schools is a game changer.

What's happening
here will improve

all of our young
people's performance,

improve their futures, you
started something special here

in the city of Boston
and I want to thank you.

We're expanding this
program, we're ready to go

with 30 kitchens next
year in our school systems.

(audience applauds)

- Before, the lunches
were not so great.

- We used to have very
few options to pick from

but this lunch has
changed our lives.

(upbeat music)

- I think first and
foremost, cities and towns

are capable of feeding
thousands and thousands

of students across
our country every day.

We've learned we don't have to
rely upon for profit vendors

to do this work for us but in
fact we can do it ourselves.

We should be able

to use our buying power
to change the market.

(upbeat music)

- Look how beautiful
the broccoli is.

- I know.

I don't think that bureaucracies
can change very easily

on their own.

Philanthropy, it can
be an instigator,

it can give a bureaucracy
the breathing room

it needs to take risks.

They couldn't have
done that on their own.

They were trying
to just feed kids.

- Hey Jennie.

- [Jill] I think
collaboration is key.

(Ken laughs)
(upbeat music)

- You wanna be an
agent of change?

I would say know your people.

You will need more
labor, of course you do.

But we're lowering our food cost

because we're able to
control it through waste

and through inventory practices

and improving
procurement practices.

(upbeat music)

- I'm very optimistic
about the food system

because we really only screwed
it up for about five decades

and I believe that the
awareness around food

is such that it's
not going backwards.

(upbeat music)

- Both of my girls
saw it on the news.

And I came and says,
hey, we did it,

and they're like we did what,

and they didn't
even announce us,

they didn't say
anything about us,

they just said that
we're gonna do it,

I go, but we did it,
that's what we need to do,

is we did it and that was it.

- There are 30 schools in
Boston that are getting

new kitchens and
we're not one of them.

- Really, so we're
not getting a kitchen?

- Hearing that.

Are you okay with that answer?

That we're not on the list
to receive a kitchen is like,

I don't have words,
honestly, like.

(downbeat music)

- I believe the
concern ultimately was

Erica's school needed
a brand new kitchen.

It would no longer simply be

an equipment
installation project.

But I still believe that
under Erica's leadership,

it will get done.

(somber music)

- The goal was to feed
the kids better food.

There was one day where
Ross and I were over at

the PJ Kennedy school and Ross
said you gotta come see this

and he waved me
into the cafeteria.

And these cafeterias are
raucous and there's kids

and there's lots of movement
and people always seem

to be yelling.

And I walked around
the corner and

there was just this lovely hum

and kids were just sitting there

and they might've been talking

but they were talking
fairly quietly

and they mostly were eating.

And I almost cried
'cause it was beautiful.

(kids chatter)

* It's the latest

* It's the greatest

* Mashed potato

* Yeah yeah yeah

* You'll find this
dance is cool to do *

* Come on, baby, gonna
teach it to you *

* Mashed potato

* Yeah, the groovy beat now

* Mashed potato

* Come on and match
the beat now, baby *

* It's the latest

* Come on honey

* It's the greatest

* Come on baby

* Mashed potato

* Yeah yeah yeah

* And then this dance

* They groove and they groove

* They play the records

* And they do it too

* They find this dance
was out of sight *

- Thank you, whoo!

* Mashed potato

* In the winter, in the winter

- My turn, you
can have the bowl.

* Yeah yeah yeah

* Yeah yeah yeah

(singers vocalize)

* Now everybody is doing fine

* They dance along
for a big boy's line *

* They discovered
it's the most, man *

* The day they did it
to please Mr. Postman *

* Mashed potato

* Wait a minute, wait a minute

* Mashed potato

* Can you believe it, yeah

* It's the latest

* Come on, baby

* It's the greatest

* Come on honey

* Mashed potato

* Yeah yeah yeah

* Well, they got with
it more and more *

* You oughta see 'em
around the floor *

* Mashed potatoes
along the list *

* They even do it
to the daily quiz *

* Mashed potato

* Get up from your chair now

* Mashed potato

* Hey yeah yeah yeah

* It's the latest

* Come on baby

* It's the greatest

* Come on, honey

* Mashed potato

* Yeah yeah yeah

* Hey yeah

* Yeah yeah yeah *

(electronic music)