It’s not "school lunch" it's “lunch at school!”

00:00:06 Michelle

Welcome to the farm to school podcast where you will hear stories of how youth thrive and farmers prosper when we learn how to grow, cook and eat delicious, nutritious local foods and schools across the country and the world.

00:00:18 Rick

Hi everybody. We're your hosts. I'm Rick Sherman.

00:00:21 Michelle

And I'm Michelle Markesteyn. And today, we have a very, very special guest in studio with us and that is Bertrand Weber, the Culinary Nutrition Services director of Minneapolis Public Schools. Hi, Bertrand.

00:00:33 Bertrand Weber

Hello from Minneapolis. So good to be with you guys.

00:00:39 Michelle

Hey, thank you for making the time Bertrand to share your story. And I guess I just want to jump in culinary and nutrition services director, that's a unique title. Tell us about that.

00:00:51 Bertrand Weber

So you know, we used to be known as nutrition services and we switched it to culinary and Wellness because we provide culinary services. It's all about the foods and two, Wellness goes hand in hand with nutrition and culinary. You can't have one without the other, right? You can't eat well if you sit on the couch all day and you can't exercise. If you don't have the proper nutrition or the proper nourishments. So we really focus on both and how one affects the other and it's been amazing.

00:01:35 Rick

And I can speak to that. Bertrand, I was in Minnesota. I spoke at a the Minnesota School Garden conference years ago. Yep, and I was able to come down and talk to you and your protege at the time, Andrea. And I had a school lunch there. And I remember it was locally raised oven baked chicken.

00:01:52 Bertrand Weber

Mm-hmm.

00:02:01 Rick

And it was everything on the menu was local and it was truly like you said. It's not what people have in mind when they think of a typical school lunch. It was wonderful. It was one of the best school lunches I've ever had.

00:02:18 Bertrand Weber

You know, it's funny. I'm a stickler for shifting the paradigm. It's not school lunch. Yep. It's lunch at school. Thank you for that. You know, people always think about school lunch. What is it? School lunch. It's just lunch.

00:02:37 Bertrand Weber

Happens to be served in a specialty restaurant called “school.”

00:02:40 Rick

Well, so tell us about more of that because you're you are a trained classical chef. How did that come about? Where one day you're doing your chef thing, and then how did you grow into it, what was your journey of going into this position?

00:03:02 Bertrand Weber

So I have to share just a little bit of my background. I grew up in Switzerland and my dad inherited the business from his father. My grandfather, who owned a “boucherie.” And what that is in Europe, it's a butcher shop, but it's also an artisan charcuterie maker, meaning my dad made pate sausages, cured meat, dried salamis. You know, the gamut of what now is the charcuterie. You know, nothing to do with charcuterie board. People don't understand that truly charcuterie is so I grew up making pate and sausages and all that stuff and develop a passion for the food and working hand in hand with my dad. I had an aunt and uncle had a restaurant, so I grew up in the food and my grandparents, my grandma's brother, had a big farm right next to her house. And the farms in Switzerland are not as we think of them in the US, or at least the big commercial farm. They grew everything. They had. Cows, pigs, chicken. You know the gamut and what they grew were every vegetable in the world you can imagine. So I grew up thinking that was the normal. That's how you ate. You know, my grandparents gave us a rabbit. All the grandkid had a rabbit that we raised and we couldn't wait for Easter to kill the rabbit and have Easter Bunny for months. And people here think we're nuts.

00:04:41 Rick

Ohh.

00:04:44 Michelle

..Was delicious, yes.

00:04:44 Bertrand Weber

And it was like, but that's the that's delicious. That's the process. So understand. Ending and seeing where your food come from has always been ingrained in everything that I do, and that's how my kids grew up with a big garden and I saw remember, a friend of mine coming to me one afternoon that they were spending at our house and we were picking cucumbers, baby, a small I think they were white wonders or something. And he says, Ohh, Mr. Weber, that's nature's candy. And it's so resonated with me. Of when you really show kids and introduce kids to the real food of the vine, the difference is it makes and you don't have to do anything. And when a kid said that's nature's candy, you know you can't help but smile. So anyway, that's my background that brought me here. I moved to the states with my parents. My dad eventually moved here and opened a restaurant and I got involved with him in the restaurant again. So I’ve always been in that background. I went back to Switzerland and went a (culinary) six months program. And when I came back, I actually was trained chef. But I went the route of food and beverage director and working hand in hand with the executive chef and my route took me all the way from Florida to North Carolina to Cape Cod and eventually to Minneapolis, and always in the hospitality industry. And one year, 19 ninety 1997, my son was diagnosed with type one diabetes. And that's when it changed my world. I became... I hate to use the word obsessed, but I became so passionate. Passionate about you know what caused him to have diabetes and of course, no one knows till this day what triggers type one diabetes. But the more I looked into our food system because I spent a lot of time with him in the school, I had the opportunity to take some time off and really manage his diabetes as a kid in elementary school, and really became the angry parent. I was like, wait a minute. This is not why we should be feeding kids. The thing is, was eating is the last thing you needed as a 7-year-old with diabetes, he don't take me wrong, he loved it. He loved the foot long hot dog and all the stuff that he was having. But that was not the things that I felt we should be feeding kids. And as I was, as I had the opportunity to take some time off, I looked into our food system. And that was the beginning of the obesity crisis. Cardiovascular diseases in young children, hormone issues with girls and everything pointed to our food system. Everything was a result of how we shift from eating whole food to processed food eating food that was cooked by parents and grandparents to food that was manufactured and just reheated in a kitchen. And that's when at some point, my wife and Eric both said that you need to either shut up, or do something about it. And that's what I went to school. I said OK. I I'll never forget. Cindy put a newspaper in front of me and said here, there's an ad. They're looking for someone to change their school program, and they don't want someone from schools, they want someone from the outside who's gonna come in and not be locked into what school food is? Because that's what it was, and that's how I got started. That's 23 years ago or something like that. I forgot. Now it's a while back. Yeah, because Eric's now 33, he survived. And now he's doing, he's doing good. So yeah, yeah.

00:09:25 Rick

Congratulations on that.

00:09:30 Michelle

So wow, thank you so much for sharing your background and I see, you know, that passion or obsession you said you started with, you know, more than two decades ago, it's still very strong in you. It's palpable. Bertrand, you are a change maker and do so many different things in foods in schools, and I'm wondering if you could bring to light share with us a couple of your things you want to celebrate or bright spots you've had over the last two decades.

00:10:01 Bertrand Weber

Sure. That's what got me into schools. So I've got to throw this one in because to me that's just one of the thing that just renewed my energy. Before COVID or January 2020, my first granddaughter was born and then COVID had when we emerged from COVID. I had five grandkids now. Yeah, So I remember COVID as the event that brought me 5 Princesses. That being said, it renewed my passion because now I'm looking at my granddaughters. I want to make sure that they have an environment that they can enjoy as much as I did when I was young. And that they have food that provides them the same quality of nourishment that I had when I was young and you know, I'm getting up there in age, but those girls just renewed my passion for what we do in schools. In the last 22 years, I remember my first exposure to lunch and there was literally pizza and French fries and I asked why and I was told that French fries was a vegetable, so therefore we had the grain, the protein and the vegetable. And I thought to myself, this is not the way we should be teaching kids how to eat? And that's when I started on my journey about if we're gonna serve pizza, there's nothing wrong with it. But let's serve a nice green, you know, that goes along from a culinary perspective, right. And by the way, it has nutrition. It has nutrients. Is that all that we need for the kids?

00:12:11 Rick

A couple of things went through my mind when you were talking about this. The 1st is that you've been in Minnesota for 20 some odd years and you've stayed there and you've improved the meal experience so much in Minnesota. But not only that, but as people can find out and in our show notes, I have links to so many interviews from you. And you know, other podcasts, other magazines articles. So you're in high demand to share your stories so other communities can do that. So my question is, we hear a lot, you said angry parent and our audience you know is for sure we have food service practitioners, food service directors, school garden coordinators, but we really want this message to go out to those parents and a lot of those parents that are listening are those same kind of parents. So not everyone can take on and take over a School Food Service Department, but they can still do something to improve it. What would you think would be the call to action for those parents that are concerned they do to help?

00:13:26 Bertrand Weber

So over the years I have calmed down. I'm not angry. I also used to be angry, you know, at every food manufacturer. And I've changed that too. As a parent, it's building the partnership and the relationship with the school and the Food Service director.

It has to start with the Food Service department. You cannot. You may put pressure from the outside. And I hear stories over and over where parents group have gone to, you know, nonprofit outside organization Superintendent, School principal to force their agenda. But the food service director is the one who's going to do it. So you have to approach the food service director, and we have to approach them. Understanding the magnitude of their job and what they have to deal with on a daily basis. And as parents, we should be there to support them and I realize that sometimes you're gonna you. You're gonna have a wall and sometimes it might be difficult, but it's working. It has to be with the Food service director, who has they're the one who gonna make the change. We have to get people to understand that it has to start with the Food service department, who's going has the potential, has the outreach to help and maybe they cannot have a school garden, but they can be a resource for the school to help them with their garden. But they're the ones who are going to be sourcing the food directly with the farmers. Yeah. Now, we might not be able to do very, you know, in-depth curriculum changes, but we can provide the resource for teachers such as, here's 5 farmers that we work with that are willing to come to your classroom and talk to kids.

00:15:38 Michelle

That's good. Excellent.

00:15:38 Bertrand Weber

Yeah, we might not be able to do it, but we can be the resource for the schools. So as parents, that's the way we should approach it. Maybe our parents that are you know that are farmers, maybe their parents that are physicians that can talk, you know, to kids about the benefit. That's of good quality food and we always in our department at least we don't talk as much as nutrition and we talk more about good food, it good food is good for you, it's good for the environment, it's good for the community, but it's good food. And by the way, here's all the other benefits. You approach a 10 year old and say let me talk to you about why you should need nutritious food. They'll tune you out. But if you talk to them about good quality food and you make fun and you have a farmer in front of them who can talk about how they raise their Turkey. And by the way, you know, we don't use any, we don't use any medicine to raise our turkeys. And turkeys are on the field. They're not in a cage. The kids, the kids get fascinated by that, and the next time there is a local Turkey burger on the menu, they'll remember the farmer. So as parents, partner with the Food Service director and offer them maybe your resource that you might have that, you know, every parent might have every source of someone they know that could help.

00:17:19 Rick

I want to thank you so much for bringing that up, but as you probably remember, I was a food service director for 30 years and food service directors are so busy and they have so many regulations and sometimes, local food or farm to school isn't the first thing on their mind. They're trying to meet their bottom line and stuff. So and have always said exactly what you've said about it's all about relationships, so if you can have a relationship, take your take your nutrition services director out for coffee and just say that exact same thing like, I'm here to help. Can I help you? What do you need to get local farmers into your kitchen? You know, they might not have the time to do that. So that's wonderful message,

00:18:03 Bertrand Weber

Yeah. And I think what's important is, you know, the food service director is not the enemy, he's your partner and that's how we need to approach them and let and parents need to recognize that because I've seen it where they're just attack. Don't attack, go to the food service Director. Sit. I know I don't. You know, I don't pretend to understand all of your business. But I know the struggle, not the struggle, just your everyday challenges that you have between USDA financial responsibilities. You're trying to increase your participation. What kids like what? Parents like what the community said. And everybody knows your job, right? You know it because you've been a food service director, but… So let them know you're here to help, not to criticize them. Even if the program is not the best, I remember when I started in Minneapolis going to PTA meeting and starting with, let me just let me know that I hate what we're serving our kids right now. But the reality is, I have a factory. I don't have a kitchen. That's the reality.

00:19:25 Rick

OK.

00:19:26 Michelle

So tell us something you are excited about. You're serving your kids right now. Thank you so much for laying out how important it is for parents to be partners with culinary and nutrition services at schools. What are some other partnerships that you need to cultivate to make your farm to school program magic happen?

00:19:28 Bertrand Weber

Yeah. I was on the National Farm to School Advisory Board, and I remember talking with the executive director about if we call it Farm to school, we need to make sure that we have farmers and schools at the table. The best and the most important partnership are the farmers you can do farm to school without building that relationship and that trust with the farmer and I cannot tell you how exciting it is to look at where we are today in Minneapolis, where when Andrea started the 1^st annual farm to school request for proposal in 2013 or so. We were able to partner with seven farms on a small scale. Most of those farmers that started with us 12 years ago are still with us and have grown substantially because of our commitment to them directly and we know we now have over 15 I think we're up to 17 this year. Forward contracting with local farmers and farm cooperatives. So we now forward contract with over 15, 17 Farm or farm cooperatives from 7 to 17 to provide our school district and our students, especially because that's where it's going for with product that is grown within 250 to 300 miles from our school district. Those are small emerging immigrant farmers. They're mid-sized farmers. We've now broken our focus on local harvests and regional sourcing. We now are doing grass fed beef. We have local Turkey from Ferndale market, which I've been working with for 14 years. And he's grown his business substantially because we're a constant. Well, we provide him the outlet for all of his dark meat where he can sell all of the high cost or high price item to local restaurants and co-ops. We do chicken, we do grains. And it's just embedded in our menu in our everyday menu. And you know just looking back, farm to school used to be this, it's a free, it was a free-standing initiative. And I remember Andrea walking into A to a room with our chef and their chef would roll his eyes back and go, Well, here goes the farm to school girl because it wasn't embedded in what we did every day where now the first thing our chef says is can we get that locally? Can you find out if there is somebody who could produce that for us? So it's embedded in everything we do. Whether again, whether it's a grain, whether it's beef and again, I don't want to give you the impression that 100% of what we do is local and farm to school, it's not, we can't, we don't have neither the financial resource to do more living in Minnesota. Can I get fresh bananas in December from my local farmer, right? Yeah. Just doesn't happen that way. So there's reality. But we when we can, we do. And I think that's the difference when we can we do.

00:23:34 Rick

That's a perfect message you do all you can. That's great. I think you're doing enough for sure. But what do you see for the future of Minneapolis public schools?

00:23:44 Bertrand Weber

So a huge accomplishment that our district did was the commitment of converting schools from heat and serve to building kitchen and with 3/4 of the way there. So I trust and see for the future of all schools with their own district being able to have a kitchen to prepare amazing meal for our kids. We continue on the path of scratch cooking now. I am blessed with a central kitchen that can do ingredients and components to facilitate schools with some of the meal preparation. We have a 500 gallon sous vide tank, where we can cook 1400 LB of Turkey thigh meat with our own seasoning that will go into the schools and used on a burrito bar. When they take that Turkey meat that comes to them and what it's been cooked in, in the in the bag that's been cooked in. And use a paddle attachment in a mixer and have the most beautiful, shredded turkey thigh meat that's used on a burrito bar or a Turkey sandwich. So I think we are continuing to expand what we do with our central kitchen to facilitate schools and we're now working on a vegetable processing area where as we can do even more with local farmer by bypassing our produce company with things that we can do in House. So you know even expanding I think our outreach is what we're looking at, so a lot of the focus in the next couple of years from Minneapolis is expanding the use of the central kitchen to facilitate scratch cooking at site at schools, so making spice mix making.. oh my God we source this local sambusa which is amazing. So most… I'm sorry, we're looking for a sample set, but now we're doing this simple set and they we do a sauce that's made at the central kitchen. And that is to die for that goes so school get to receive that. But we do it in House, we do it ourselves because I've got the luxury of the central kitchen. So it's pushing what we can do here at the central kitchen, whether it's a cake mix or spice mix, something ready that helps the schools. Roasts and vegetable. Right now they're working on a vegetable blend mix seasoning which we know we have to reduce the sodium. So how do we tackle that? We tackle that. We're creating a spice mix. We're using actually a dehydrated lemon with some herbs and things that they're making here that we can send to the schools, so when they get that local green bean or that that broccoli, we can roast that using a spice mix that's made here. And then everyone gets the same high quality, the quality and they don't have to, you know, touch around making their own spice mix. So I think it's continuing to focus on increasing what we can do centrally to increase the quality of the food at the site at the school.

00:27:19 Michelle

Wow. That is so innovative and exciting. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

00:27:26 Bertrand Weber

Why you are so welcome! This was so much fun. I truly appreciate talking with you guys.

00:27:31 Michelle

And thank you everyone for listening.

00:27:34 Rick

Farm to school podcast was written, directed and produced by Rick Sherman and Michelle Markesteyn with production support from Leanne Locker of Oregon State University. The podcast was made possible by a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.

00:27:49 Michelle

The content and ideas of the farm to school podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oregon State University, Oregon Department of Education, or the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA, Oregon Department of Education and Oregon State University are equal opportunity providers and employers.

00:28:06 Rick

Do you want to learn more about Farm to school? Check out other episodes, show notes, contact information and much more by Googling Farm to school podcast, OSU.

00:28:16 Michelle

Yeah, we'd love to hear from you. Stop by that website. OSU Farm to school podcast you mentioned. Say hello and give us an idea for a future podcast.

00:28:26 Rick

We'd love to see you and next time. Bye everybody.

00:28:30 Michelle

Bye, everyone. Thanks again Bertrand.

00:28:33 Bertrand Weber

You are so welcome. This was great.