Marc Vetri isn’t just an all-star chef… he is also passionate about young people eating healthy and making wiser lifestyle decisions. This passion is why the Vetri Foundation’s Eatiquette program is helping transform lunchrooms locally.

I spoke with the Vetri Foundation’s Director of Culinary Operations, Tia McDonald to find out more about the program.

Vetri Foundation – Talking with Tia McDonald

Green Philly Blog: Great to talk to you today! Tell me about the Vetri Foundation.

Tia McDonald: The Vetri Foundation partners with schools and enters consulting agreements with them. We are advisers that helps schools provide our lunch program, Eatiquette, which transforms a school lunch. The first part is providing recipes and menus to the in-house staff for the school.

The second approach is the dining aspect. We’re incorporating food education and helping kids try food they’ve never tried before. A lot of schools are full of carbohydrates, dense foods while we’re incorporating at fresh fruits and vegetables – foods made from scratch.

In many school settings, you’ll see rectangular tables where kids have 17 minutes to eat, stand in line, and wait for the lunch lady to scoop out food into a disposable platter. We put round tables in the lunchroom. We have the students set the tables down in non-disposable service-ware and food is served family style. Negotiation and communication skills must be used at the table: There’s 18 things on the platter, with 8 people at the table that must ask for things to be passed.

They’re learning social skills, healthier choices of what to eat and soft skills over how to communicate over food. That’s a missing element in our society these days where people sit in front of their phone or TV during dinner.

A lot of these skills that are learned in our lunchroom, when the chefs talk to the students about what’s being served, goes back into the family element and community. These kids are then the catalysts for change in their neighborhoods. They’re asking for fresh fruits and vegetables because they get them for school lunch. They can go to their parents and lead by their example. This will then naturally bring locally-sourced fresh products and less processed foods into the community.

Vetri’s Eatiquette & Sustainability

Green Philly Blog: How much food do you think is locally sourced?

Tia McDonald: One school is sourcing all their produce from Lancaster County, 100% locally. It’s a work in progress.

Green Philly Blog: Do you have a standard moving forward?

Tia McDonald: We do have a system that reflects seasonality in the local PA/NJ community. All milk is sourced locally and 25% of the foods are as well.

GPB: What sustainability initiatives do the schools take part in?

Tia McDonald: They don’t use any disposables, and everything is reusable. But we also look at sustainability from a number of different angles: What’s the end result of our program to an individual on a healthier path in life?

A number of individuals in our country are going to be potential outliving their parents. There’s a number of health conditions children are facing. What we’re trying to do and accomplish is to get in front of a lot of these issues, and teach students there’s a healthier way to live. Eating locally will decrease the health effects we’re having, and lessening our financial impact as a whole.

Healthier children will ultimately lead to healthier adults, making healthier choices.

GPB: Anything else you’d like to share about Eatiquette?

Tia McDonald: We have entered into a 3-year partnership with Independence Blue Cross Foundation, partnering with CHOP & Philadelphia Union in the Healthy Futures Initiative to fight childhood obesity. This long-term sustainability initiative will measure results & impact of the schools. The three points – Eat Healthy, Stay Healthy and Stay active – will create individuals who are not only conscientious of where their food comes from and how it makes them feel, but it will initiate habits that will cause long-term sustaining effects on themselves and communities.

Photo: Vetri Foundation

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher