If you haven’t heard already, there have been some big changes in Memphis City Schools Nutrition Services. They’ve hired a new director of nutrition services named Tony Geraci, who has already proposed a number of promising changes to what our school children eat and where it comes from. In fact, Geraci is calling for nothing less than a “farm-to-fork” revolution in city schools, which, if successful, will have students across Memphis eating healthier food that is locally grown in a garden devoted specifically to that purpose.
Mr. Geraci joins us from Baltimore, where he held a similar position, and promised similar transformations. As the Commercial Appeal has already explained, (http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/oct/20/farm-to-fork/) Geraci turned 33 acres of abandoned city property in Baltimore into an organic “Great Kids Farm.” Here in Memphis, Geraci is on the same path, enlisting the support of local philanthropists and corporations to locate and purchase an even larger plot of land. In addition, Geraci has already started programs to bring federally-subsidized breakfasts and dinners to MCS. If all of this works according to plan, moreover, it is likely to inject a significant amount of money into our local economy, since MCS would be purchasing a significant portion of its food locally, rather than from more distant distributors.
But before we get too carried away, we should ask ourselves why Mr. Geraci left Baltimore. The Commercial Appeal writes that Geraci left Baltimore with “impatience,” and quotes him as saying: “I brought that program as far as I could.” In fact, a little research into the matter reveals that Geraci left Baltimore having accomplished a few of his goals, but with most of them unfulfilled or only partially complete. There appear to be a number of reasons for this.
To begin with, articles written around the time of Mr. Geraci’s departure from Baltimore in the summer of 2010 suggest that he was unable to secure the amount of funding and policy support that he needed from the city. As Geraci stated in one article, “I was told I'd have the support of the school system for my ideas, but it hasn't happened”(http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/baltimore/hard-to-swallow/Content?oid=1266356). Furthermore, it seems that even when Geraci was able to implement his initiatives, they were not always approved of by students and parents. For example, Geraci apparently received angry phone calls every “meatless Monday” from parents who disagreed with the idea.
What stands out the most from these articles, however, is that Geraci was never able to secure the funding to create a central kitchen for Baltimore city schools, which he saw as integral to his food revolution. In this respect Memphis has an advantage over Baltimore, as our city spent $22 million to build a central kitchen for MCS in 2003.
So, what are we to make of all this? More than likely, Mr. Geraci is a man who fully intends to carry out the vision that he has proposed. Because of this vision and his enthusiasm, Geraci has been featured in two documentaries, The Cafeteria Man and Angry Moms, honored by FoodService Director magazine, and presented with an award by the governor of Maryland, so there is good reason to believe that he is a true man of purpose. Nevertheless, Mr. Geraci will experience the same frustration here as he did in Baltimore if the city does not rally behind him. What Mr. Geraci said in Baltimore, then, remains just as pertinent in Memphis: “The reality is the citizens of this town need to stand up and say that they need these ideas to happen.”
Let’s do just that.
