New York Coalition for Healthy School Lunches Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

School program expenses food servicein 2024, we continued our formal partnership with New York city's department of education office of food and nutrition services (ofns). We participated in quarterly meetings and continued to work with them to promote plant-based entrees. We provided continuing education to about 350 of their management team, with kathy pollard, ms, presenting on our behalf in september. We also began an outreach program to about 15,000 school food service directors nationwide, in 46 states. This included an email newsletter and monthly webinars. Elementary schoolscool school food in the classroomcool school food in the classroom is a curriculum that we developed to introduce and promote specific plant-based recipes being served on the nyc schools lunch menu. The lessons are always taught in the morning and they are impactful because they are taught on the days that the dish is being served at lunch. In 2024, we delivered lessons from this curriculum at ps 244 in queens to three classes of third graders. The recipe we featured was chickpea shawarma, a dish inspired by the culture of the middle east. We did a slide-show presentation featuring images from the middle east including architecture, landscape, transportation, families and children, food, animals, and more. Then the students learned about the ingredients in the recipe with a hands-on sensory experience of seeing, touching, and smelling the ingredients. For example, they smell the spices, put their hands in a giant bowl of dry chickpeas and play with the beans (which they absolutely love doing), and pass around the vegetables. Our teachers, the classroom teachers, and our volunteers have a "cheat sheet" of questions to ask about each ingredient, for example, which vegetable is the pepper or what food group the chickpeas belong to (legumes). The students then had a sample of the dish that the cafeteria prepared extra of, and we ask how many liked it, how many thought it was just okay, and how many did not care for it. We also remind students that sometimes it takes many tries to see if we like something or not, and encourage them to try it again if it was not their favorite. Then we lead an inquiry-based discussion about the power of plants. Food unearthed: uncovering the truth about food food unearthed: uncovering the truth about food is a curriculum that we developed for elementary school children consisting of 24 lessons per year for pre-k, kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grades. Each grade level has its own unique set of lessons with a theme, and each week includes a healthy plant-based snack. From january through june of 2024, we taught a series of five food unearthed: uncovering the truth about food lessons to 188 pre-k students at three uptown nyc district 2 prek sites. The parents loved the program and told us that they were trying the recipes that were in the take home handouts. From march to june of 2024, we taught weekly food unearthed classes at ps 90 in brooklyn. We reached fifty-five second graders every week. Cooking classesat ps 206 in brooklyn, we provided cooking classes during the school day to all 702 kindergarten to third grade students in thirty-one classes. Each class received two lessons. Each student had their own cooking station with ingredients, a child-safe knife and a chopping mat. Each lesson would begin with a short discussion about the power of whole plant foods. Then, the instructor would demonstrate the recipe and talk about the ingredients. A few of the favorite recipes included hummus wraps and non-dairy parfaits. After school cooking classeswe provided five after-school family cooking classes at ps 244 in queens. We did one class of twenty people (10 students with one parent/caregiver) for each grade in the school for a total of one hundred participants. Students chopped veggies, measured ingredients, and assisted in preparing a dressing or sauce alongside their parent/caregiver. The recipes we prepared together included

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 68.5%; rating input score 69
• Program expense ratio: 80.9%; rating input score 81
• Fundraising efficiency: $18.18 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 55; 55th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 85.7%; rating input score 86; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Fail
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 16.3%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.19; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 25.7%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 13.9% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings