hosted<\/a> nearly 500 educators and administrators for the Food and Nutrition Education Summit in early June. (Photo courtesy of Tisch Food Center)\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Boosting Food and Nutrition Education Across the City<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the Project? The NYC Nutrition Collaborative grant program offers funding to schools interested in boosting their food and nutrition education offering and matches them with an approved organization.
\nHow the Tisch Food Center Helps: Tisch Food Center researchers quantified the program\u2019s reach and impact on food and nutrition education. A recent study from Center researchers shows that Nutrition Collaborative grants are addressing education gaps created by federal SNAP-Ed cuts by boosting participation among underserved populations.
\nWhat\u2019s the Impact? \u00a0Research from Tisch Food Center demonstrated that schools with 90 percent of students living in poverty, high schools and on Staten Island saw the highest increase in program participation. Evidence from the Tisch Center\u2019s findings has informed the expansion of the program, with 600 grants awarded for the 2026-27 school year, a dramatic increase from just 60 grants in 2023\u201324 the first year of this program. This was made possible by city\u2019s adoption of the Roadmap for Food Education, co-developed by the Tisch Food Center
\nWhat\u2019s Next? An upcoming qualitative study from the Tisch Food Center will better illustrate the impact of Nutrition Collaborative grants on school communities and support development of sustainable food and nutrition education programming.<\/p>\n
Teachers College Building<\/p>\n
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\n ![\"lentil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/lentil-bolognese-tisch.jpg\")
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An example of a scratch-cooked meal featuring lentil bolognese, one of the recipes would learn about in their nutrition education curriculum and then have the opportunity to try in their lunch room. (Photo courtesy of Tisch Food Center)\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Increasing Access to Healthy, Scratch-Made Meals<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the Project? The Chefs in Schools (CITS) program, offered by Wellness in the Schools, helped NYC public schools prepare more nutritious recipes.
\nHow the Tisch Food Center Helps: Researchers helped scale the reach of CITS by conducting a thorough evaluation of a 2018 pilot, and publishing a report that informed the approach of programming and made mass adoption feasible. \u00a0The Tisch Food Center also recently completed an investigative report that examined the impact of CITS on school meals, kitchen operations and staff morale and offered recommendations for improvements.
\nWhat\u2019s the Impact? Cooks in more than 1,000 NYC public schools received critical training over the course of three years to prepare nutritious plant-based recipes, like lentil bolognese pasta or chickpea shawarma, from scratch.
\nWhat\u2019s Next? The CITS impact report was recently presented to the NYC Office of Food and Nutrition Services, Wellness in the Schools and the NY Health Foundation and will inform further scratch-cooking initiatives.<\/p>\n
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Carousel<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Tisch-graph-by-borough.jpg\")
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Above, a Tisch Food Center study maps which boroughs benefit the most from Nutrition Collaborative grants. (Chart: Tisch Food Center)\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Tisch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Tisch-graph---by-grade-band.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Above, a Tisch Food Center study demonstrates which students by grade band benefit most from Nutrition Collaborative grants. (Chart by Tisch Food Center)\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Tisch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Tisch-Graph---By-Poverty-2026.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Above, a Tisch Food Center study maps how many students living in poverty have access to a food and nutrition organization or school garden. (Chart by Tisch Food Center)\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u2014 Sherri Gardner<\/p>\n
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Published Wednesday, Oct 7, 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Research: From the Tisch Food Center, two studies that examine the efficacy of local nutrition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-367271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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