New York City boasts the healthiest public school lunches in the country, thanks to strict nutrition guidelines, an increase in freshly-made, plant-based meals and a commitment to providing more locally-grown food in schools. This is the result of a city-wide push to create more equitable and sustainable food systems through the 10-year Food Forward NYC policy plan — developed by TC alumna and the former executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, Kate MacKenzie (M.A. ’03) — and the College’s Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy has been instrumental in the implementation of the plan, and overall transformation of NYC food education and policy on multiple fronts. 

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The Center supports a range of dynamic research and community initiatives: Its work advancing implementation of food and nutrition education and bringing scratch-made meals into more than half of the district’s schools have been particularly impactful for NYC students since 2022. Education and school meals work in synergy as students learn about the importance of eating well in the classroom and then their daily lunch experience provides them with health-promoting meals. 

“We know that education about food in school — seeing it grow, preparing meals together and having community-based experiences with that food — is what makes kids excited about eating those foods,” explains Tisch Center Faculty Director Pamela Koch, the Mary Swartz Rose Associate Professor of Nutrition & Education. “Our research has shown that when children are excited about nutritious food, they’re more likely to choose those items when they see them in the school cafeteria.”

Below, learn more about two of Tisch Food Center’s latest endeavors for research-driven impact.

Boosting Food and Nutrition Education Across the City

• What’s the Project? The NYC Nutrition Collaborative grant program offers funding to schools interested in boosting their food and nutrition education offering and matches them with an approved organization.
• How the Tisch Food Center Helps: Tisch Food Center researchers quantified the program’s reach and impact on food and nutrition education. A recent study from Center researchers shows that Nutrition Collaborative grants are addressing education gaps created by federal SNAP-Ed cuts by boosting participation among underserved populations.
• What’s the Impact?  Research from Tisch Food Center demonstrated that schools with 90 percent of students living in poverty, high schools and on Staten Island saw the highest increase in program participation. Evidence from the Tisch Center’s findings has informed the expansion of the program, with 600 grants awarded for the 2026-27 school year, a dramatic increase from just 60 grants in 2023–24 the first year of this program. This was made possible by city’s adoption of the Roadmap for Food Education, co-developed by the Tisch Food Center
• What’s Next? An upcoming qualitative study from the Tisch Food Center will better illustrate the impact of Nutrition Collaborative grants on school communities and support development of sustainable food and nutrition education programming.

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Increasing Access to Healthy, Scratch-Made Meals

• What’s the Project? The Chefs in Schools (CITS) program, offered by Wellness in the Schools, helped NYC public schools prepare more nutritious recipes.
• How the Tisch Food Center Helps: Researchers helped scale the reach of CITS by conducting a thorough evaluation of a 2018 pilot, and publishing a report that informed the approach of programming and made mass adoption feasible.  The Tisch Food Center also recently completed an investigative report that examined the impact of CITS on school meals, kitchen operations and staff morale and offered recommendations for improvements.
• What’s the Impact? Cooks in more than 1,000 NYC public schools received critical training over the course of three years to prepare nutritious plant-based recipes, like lentil bolognese pasta or chickpea shawarma, from scratch.
• What’s Next? The CITS impact report was recently presented to the NYC Office of Food and Nutrition Services, Wellness in the Schools and the NY Health Foundation and will inform further scratch-cooking initiatives.

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Above, a Tisch Food Center study maps which boroughs benefit the most from Nutrition Collaborative grants. (Chart: Tisch Food Center) 

Above, a Tisch Food Center study demonstrates which students by grade band benefit most from Nutrition Collaborative grants. (Chart by Tisch Food Center) 

Above, a Tisch Food Center study maps how many students living in poverty have access to a food and nutrition organization or school garden. (Chart by Tisch Food Center) 

— Sherri Gardner