350: Andrew Nowak Garden to Cafeteria School Programs

Helping students have better access to healthier foods.

In This Podcast: After earning his PhD, an academic career was not going to work for him, so Andrew Nowak pivoted his passions and experience into improving the lives of his kids. This eventually led him to take on changing the protocols and processes of helping school cafeterias source food from school gardens and local farms. This broke ground for school districts around the country to implement new protocols themselves. This is a MUST listen for any parent wanting healthier food in their school’s cafeteria!

Andrew is the former Director of the National School Garden Program for Slow Food USA where he was responsible for building capacity of nearly 150 Slow Food chapters to be partners in school garden projects.  For 12 years he was the co-director of Slow Food Denver’s Seed-to-Table, School Food Program and developed protocols for Youth Farmers’ Markets and Garden to Cafeteria programs.

Since 2009, Andrew has been the District Partner for Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Schools helping to source local fruits, vegetables and meats for the cafeterias, to develop scratch cooking and salad bars in schools, and the development of school farms to grow organic vegetables for school kitchens.

Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/05/08/350-andrew-nowak/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.