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Seattle Public Schools Partners with Muckleshoot Tribe to Serve Locally Sourced Salmon School Lunch with Support from OSE’s Healthy Food in Schools Program

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Scratch-cooked salmon alfredo pasta
Locally sourced salmon from the Muckleshoot tribe

On May 25, Seattle Public Schools Culinary Services program continued its mission of serving freshly cooked, locally sourced, and culturally relevant food in school meals. All 109 Seattle Public Schools (SPS) served students a freshly prepared salmon alfredo pasta dish with 3,000 pounds of sustainable, local salmon purchased from Muckleshoot Seafood Products. OSE’s Healthy Food in Schools Program helped connect SPS Culinary Services staff with Muckleshoot Seafood Products to source the salmon and support the purchase. 

Members of the SPS Culinary Services Team and Muckleshoot Tribal Council Member Louie Ungaro at the Salmon School Lunch

Muckleshoot Tribal Council Member and fisherman Louie Ungaro visited the Seattle World School on the day of the event to talk with SPS Culinary Services staff and OSE staff about sustainable salmon fishing, natural resource conservation, Native-owned food businesses and Tribal enterprises, food sovereignty, and the importance of fresh and nutritious school meals.

SPS Culinary Services has been working to transform Seattle’s school meal program by prioritizing menu items cooked “from scratch” with fresh, locally sourced foods that reflect diverse cultures and cuisines. Earlier this school year, SPS served misir wot (Ethiopian spiced red lentils) with injera (Ethiopian flatbread); the lentils were locally grown, and the injera came from Sebhat Bakery, a locally-owned business. For Lunar New Year, SPS served stir fry with crispy tofu and bok choy.  

SPS used 3,000 pounds of locally sourced salmon
SPS Culinary Staff prepare the salmon lunch

Providing nutritious, freshly made school meals is an investment in the health, learning, and well-being of Seattle students. By purchasing high-quality meal ingredients from local farmers, fisheries, and other food businesses, SPS is providing healthy meals for students and supporting the local economy for a more sustainable, equitable food system. 

This collaboration between SPS Culinary Services and the Muckleshoot Tribe exemplifies “values-based” food purchasing, a priority for OSE and other City departments that manage food programs with many community partners. By aligning food purchases with core values such as racial equity, health, local economy, cultural relevance, and environmental sustainability, values-based procurement is an important way OSE’s Healthy Food in Schools Program uses public dollars from the Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax to support an equitable, sustainable, and resilient local food system.

Green Worker Spotlight: Moving Toward a More Just and Healthy City

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The COVID-19 pandemic has made worse many existing inequities across our communities. As we work to build Seattle back better, we have an opportunity to build a more just, healthy, and beautiful city.

Under a Green New Deal framework, we are working to eliminate our city’s climate pollution by 2030, advance environmental justice, and create good, green, well-paying jobs. We are doing a Green Worker Spotlight on three individuals who are not only rising to the climate challenge, but also continuing to lead their communities in solutions for all.

Edwin Wanji – Sphere Solar Energy
Recent solar workforce diversity reports show a lack of diversity in the industry. At Sphere Solar, Edwin’s team is working to make energy accessible and clean, and paving the way for people of color and immigrants in the solar industry to serve all members of the community, especially for vulnerable populations. This includes energy, water and waste infrastructure, transportation sector, supported by an inclusive and diverse workforce.

Solar Sphere has successfully delivered international relief projects in Haiti and Kenya, and are supporting a solar project with a local faith-based organization, leveraging grant funding resources from the local utility, and providing education and training for the historically BIPOC congregation.

Solar Sphere is working to advance a green economy from the clean energy, community resilience, and environmental justice standpoint, and hopes to increase capacity for providing strategic advisory support at the local, national and international level. Learn more here: https://spheresolarenergy.com/

Masra Clamoungou, Black Farmers Collective and Small Axe Farms

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for improved natural resources and access to healthy food and green space where communities can grow culturally-significant foods and medicines.

Farmers and farmworkers play a fundamental role within the green economy by being aware of the ways that natural systems interact and through responsibly managing the use of these systems and resources to produce nourishment for human communities.

Black Farmers Collective is working to reclaim Black and Indigenous relationships with the land, improve BIPOC communities’ food sovereignty, and guide discussions about racial inequality. Learn more here: https://blackstarfarmers.org/

Stuart Vázquez, Eco-Lógica

Bringing information and education to support communities who have been most impacted by environmental injustice get involved in green living is critical for living a more sustainable lifestyle.

Eco-Lógica is the first and only bilingual magazine about environmental and sustainability education totally free in the Puget Sound area. Learn more about Eco-Lógica here, and leave a comment below about how your job helps protect the environment! https://ecologicamagazine.com/

Lower Your Carbon “Foodprint”

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ftgtw-challenge-icon-150x225

Think you don’t waste much food at home? Take the Food: Too Good To Waste Challenge to find out how much food you’re tossing.

By now, you’ve probably heard of a carbon footprint, where you measure the carbon associated with your daily activities, like commuting, heating/cooling your home and taking trips. But one of the biggest choices you make to impact the climate may be related to food, or your carbon “foodprint.”

Food production is very energy intensive, as it includes direct emissions from food growing, as well as energy associated with transport, food production, processing, packaging and distribution. Food waste is another big contributor (food in a landfill doesn’t break down as it does when composted, instead releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas). This is particularly impactful when otherwise edible food is thrown out – all the energy it took to grow the food is lost, too.

But there are plenty of ways to lower the impact of what you eat. First, you can take a quick survey to find out your carbon foodprint, which will give you a better idea of how various food choices impact the environment. You might be surprised by a few things, especially if you love dairy…

No one wants to waste food, but it happens. In fact, Americans waste about 25 percent of all food and drinks we buy, adding up to more than $1,600 each year. Ouch! Luckily, there are ways to prevent a lot of waste and some good tools out there to help us along the way. Check out the Food, Too Good to Waste toolkit to learn tips on planning meals, shopping, preparing and storing food (hint, basil will last longer outside the fridge!).

Some things you just have to toss, so don’t forget to throw your scraps in the compost or yard collection bin (or feed to chickens if you have them, they’re some of the best recyclers around).