Principal and Local Food Guru Team-up to Bring First Lady Michelle Obama’s Program to Anne Arundel County

By Sarah Miller

“Do you know how long it’s been since the eggs you buy in the grocery store were laid?” Tyler Heights Elementary School principal Faye Daniel asked a gymnasium full of students Friday morning. Nearly 400 pairs of eyeballs watched her expectantly as she answered that the average grocery store egg was laid six months before you pluck a dozen of them off the shelf. The little eyes widened as she gave them more surprising news: eggs purchased from local farmers are only a fraction of that age – typically only a day or two old. “Those are fresh eggs!” Daniel exclaimed.

Daniel, a striking blonde clearly adored and respected by her students, is a self described “rebel” principal. She exudes a no-nonsense air while at the same time resonating an unmistakable charm – the kind of person you immediately like and admire. Daniel has teamed up with Annapolitan community leader and proprietor of A Chef’s Café Craig Sewell to participate in First Lady Michelle Obama’s national “Chefs Move to Schools” initiative.

The new program, announced in May, encourages the pairing of chefs with schools to educate students about healthy foods and nutrition as well as engage students and teachers in simple food preparation and food-based curriculum.

Chef Craig Sewell speaks to students and faculty at Tyler Heights Elementary School on Friday. Photo by Mike Halstad.

Sewell, one of the central figures in Maryland’s local food movement, has been a force in getting Annapolitans to eat healthy way before his participation in “Chefs Move to Schools.” “I’m a big Jamie Oliver fan,” he explained, citing interest in both the British chef’s show The Naked Chef as well as his recent Emmy-winning reality program, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.

Inspired by Oliver’s dedication to ending childhood obesity and promoting sustainability, Sewell began to offer Food Revolution-based cooking classes at A Cook’s Café – first for parents and eventually inviting children. “This generation of children actually has a lower life expectancy than its parents,” he said gravely. Sewell’s goal in becoming part of the national movement to end the epidemic created by poor eating and childhood obesity is to engage parents in the kitchen to cultivate a greater understanding of how eating habits affect the health of their children.

Sewell found that he easily bonded with the children in his cooking classes and recalled with a delight how receptive they were to all that he was teaching them. Signing on as a volunteer with “Chefs Move to Schools” was to Sewell “the next logical step.”

Yesterday morning Principal Daniel introduced Sewell to the children and the soft-spoken man in the white chef’s jacket genially announced “you can call me The Food Man.” After his presentation, he spoke with zeal about his plans for Tyler Heights Elementary and the exceptional work Faye Daniel is doing there.

“Faye is brave,” Sewell offers, noting that her unflinching perseverance and dedication is exactly what will make this program succeed. He also said that one of his pressing tasks is to find a “champion” on the school board who can help them ensure that the program will be allowed to continue.

Underscoring the importance of the program, Sewell and Daniel both noted that Tyler Heights’ students are threatened by what they call a “food desert.” “Our families live in a food desert,” Daniel said. “There are no grocery stores within walking distance so many buy their groceries at convenience stores with no fresh produce or meat.” Bringing Sewell into the fray will hopefully provide these students, a staggering 60-70% of whom rely on the Free Lunch Program, with fresh, healthy lunches.

The first step of Sewell’s plan is to simply “work the cafeteria line” with the servers to gain a familiarity with the children, the environment, and “the interaction, both mechanically and humanly.” His aim at first is just to see how the food is produced and served.

“Most of the food is cooked offsite and trucked in,” Sewell explained. The broccoli which is served at the cafeteria, for example, is “frozen, cooked, trucked in, reheated, and served.” By the time the vegetable reaches the children’s lunch tray, it lacks much of its natural nutritional value.

Sewell explained that he hopes to have fresh broccoli donated to the cafeteria for one project and will then work alongside the cafeteria staff to prepare and serve it to the students. Sewell expects that fresh, healthier and better tasting foods will spark interactive discussions between the students and teachers about healthy eating.

The second step is to use the after school program at Tyler Heights to engage parents, teachers and students in simple, beginner-level cooking classes. Sewell and Daniel’s goal is to cultivate an awareness of healthy food choices, basic preparation techniques, and sustainability concepts through community education.

Eventually, Sewell hopes to be integrated into the school’s curriculum, to be in every classroom working on projects with the students. Part of this long-term goal is for the students to take a field trip to a local farm for what he calls a “School-to-Farm Dinner” where they will be able to visually make connections between the food they eat and where it is grown.

Sewell and Daniel have committed to making Tyler Heights Elementary the “model school” for Mrs. Obama’s “Chefs Move to Schools” program here in Anne Arundel County. Ideally, their work will have a ripple effect amidst neighboring schools and further outward growth. Working together with families and teachers, their mission, Daniel said, is simply “to get healthy food for our children.”