This Conversation Currents features Chef Kevin Gillespie, owner of Atlanta restaurant Gunshow, contestant on Bravo's "Top Chef Las Vegas" in 2009, and food activist for various organizations. He shares his journey to becoming a chef, ways to integrate healthy foods in schools, and the role of literacy in nutrition.

A new report by researchers at the University of Arkansas concludes that charter schools in New York City are not fairly funded, in comparison to district schools. The report asserts that this inequity is especially big for charter schools that are not co-located in public schools. The report also describes expenditure patterns across schools,…

The essays in "School Food Politics" explore the intersections of food and politics on all six of the inhabited continents of the world. Including electoral fights over universally free school meals in Korea, nutritional reforms to school dinners in England and canteens in Australia, teachers' and doctors' work on school feeding in…

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), School Nutrition Association (SNA), and Society for Nutrition Education (SNE) that comprehensive, integrated nutrition services in schools, kindergarten through grade 12, are an essential component of coordinated school health programs and will improve the nutritional status, health,…

Food service is one of the leading generators of job growth in the nation. Those who hope to advance must be expert at hiring, training, and motivating employees. (JOW)

The hospitality industry is one that is not adversely affected by the information revolution. As tourism is stimulated by government economic development efforts, opportunities in the food service and hospitality occupations are increasing, both for the young and for the unemployed who need retraining. (SK)

In this article, the author reviews school lunches around Boston. He discusses a significant fact about school lunches today, which is the "free" and "reduced" lunch program. The most promising developments he saw came from two opposite directions: (1) from food conglomerates reformulating snack foods to eliminate transfats,…

The new cafeteria at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota is part restaurant, part study hall, part lounge area and part health-food store. From the beginning, the superintendent and food service leaders planned the facility to ensure that balanced diets with quickly prepared, but healthy, foods are offered to students to help them…

Defines the meaning of the American expression "convenience food," quoting definitions given by dictionaries and specialized publications. Discusses the problem of finding the exact equivalent of this expression in French, and recommends some acceptable translations. (MES)

Discusses the employment outlook for the food-service industry. Includes information about organizations that have developed materials for secondary culinary arts programs. (Author/JOW)

Designed to help college administrators read and understand accounting statements, this paper provides tips about danger signals that may be evident in financial statements and that may call for speedy action. The first statement examined is a balance sheet; i.e., a summation of all of the possessions and debts of a business or entity, which shows…

Gives a brief report on an experimental program that provided good tasting nutritious food to students during school breaks as an alternative to cafeteria school lunches. Describes program planning, how and where the food supplies were purchased, and how the program gained general acceptance. Includes a sample menu. (AEM)

In a properly designed and implemented central kitchen and commissary, nutrition is retained, student acceptability is high, and cost-effectiveness for the school district is attained. Employee productivity can be increased three or four times the average production rate. (MLF)

Outlines (1) the changes that have occurred in school food service since the National School Lunch Act of 1946, (2) the choices in foods served and in new markets, and (3) an action plan for the challenges facing school food service professionals. (MLF)

Describes a modified vocational education program in which trainable mentally handicapped 12- to 21-year-olds are taught commercial foods and food-service job skills that would be used in fast foods restaurant. (CT)