Urban Update Podcast

This episode is a special throwback edition from May 2022 at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago Illinois. As most of you know, Marlon loves surrounding himself with people smarter than him. And even more so, he loves introducing the people he surrounds himself with to each other. In this episode, he had the opportunity to introduce two respective juggernauts to each other. That is Dr. Katie Wilson, Executive Director from the Urban School Food Alliance, and Bret Thorn, Senior food & beverage editor at Nation’s Restaurant News.

The Urban School Food Alliance is considered by many to be the most innovative organization in the United States when it comes to feeding children. Because they are made up of the largest districts in the country, which also happen to be the largest restaurant chains in their communities, they face a different set of challenges that require out of the box, forward thinking to overcome. In this episode you'll learn why Dr. Wilson is at the National Restaurant Association show, and why the Urban School Food Alliance believes in and pushes innovation to ensure no kid goes unfed.” Better food, better health, kids are our focus.

Welcome to the Urban Update podcast! On today's episode, Marlon had the opportunity to spend some time at the Great Kids Farm which is operated by Baltimore City Public School’s Food and Nutrition Services Department. Joining him was Anne Rosenthal, their Farm to School Specialist, Monique Rolle (Role), the Manager of Menu Planning and Procurement, and their Executive Director, Elizabeth Marchetta. In this episode, you’ll learn more about the history of the farm, how FNS is using it to educate students, and why it’s important to have fun innovative programs such as this one within child nutrition programs.

Great Kids Farm:

Baltimore City Public Schools:

Urban School Food Alliance

In this episode, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Manish Singh from LA Unified. Manish has a degree from Delhi University in Hotel Management (India's premier hotel management school), an MBA, and a CASBO certification. He has been with his district for the past 15 years where he’s grown the CEP program and feeds 137 million meals annually to roughly 500,000 students.

During the pandemic, he partnered with local Food Banks, USDA’s Farmer to Families, and the Red Cross to distribute over 140 million meals to students across the community. Manish is passionate about food and committed to providing his students with the types of delicious and nutritious meals they need and want.

On today’s podcast, Dr. Katie Wilson and Marlon had the opportunity to speak with Aaron Smith, the Director of Culinary Services at Seattle Public Schools. Aaron is one of the newer members of the Urban School Food Alliance, and among many things, is extremely innovative, tenacious, and has a passion for feeding children the types of meals they can expect at home regardless of their cultural background.