Meeting with New Culinary Director - a Breath of Fresh Air!

Last week we had a very refreshing meeting with Culinary Express. Michelle Sagedahl, the new Director, and Anne Marie Milbert, Assistant Supervisor, were in attendance.

Michelle shared her food philosophy with us, which you can see in the attached pictures. We hope you'll like what you see!

A few highlights from our conversation:

• Michelle is currently analyzing Wayzata's program and wants to build a 3 year strategic plan. They plan to focus on the elementary and middle school menu and then push changes to the high school.
• One goal is to reduce waste and plastic. Reusable grab and go containers are being tested at East and West Middle Schools along with the upper grades at Meadow Ridge.
Try It Tuesday is being done by an Ecology of Food program at the high school with 30 students. They hope to use the class for a recipe competition for Try It Tuesday later in the year.
In the elementary schools the goal is to get students through the line in 7-8 minutes. Sometimes it has been up to 10-12 minutes due to various factors - students not knowing PINs, new staff not knowing efficiencies, classes showing up late, etc. They get called in when this happens to figure out how to solve the problem.
They know the bread is a problem (it's the reason for a lot of the "red light" entrees on the monthly menu review) and yes, the high school menu does have bleached flour. Michelle has talked to other suppliers and is working on options. There are frozen options but she doesn't have enough storage.
Michelle is personally interested in building more kitchens.
Michelle and Anne Marie both know Bertrand Weber from Minneapolis Schools as well as Barb Mechura from Hopkins Schools. They have been sharing best practices and in fact Bertrand gave them the supplier for the new chana masala spice blend.
Michelle wants to focus on the lunch tray first before addressing the a la carte menu. She wants to figure out how to make it better while still leaving the option in place.
Next steps: she will work with the district to for a parent advisory council for Culinary Express (all other departments have a parent advisory council except Culinary Express) and hopes to have this in place by the end of the calendar year.

We reinforced that we want to collaborate with them and they shared that thought. We made it clear that we are here to help them succeed and if there are things we can do on the wellness side to help them, we let them know we would. We look forward to working with them!