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Researchers from the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute were awarded $248,261 for their Fair Employment and Economic Dignity (FEED) project, a study of school food labor practices in America’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and New York City. Funds are provided by the USDA and are administered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Food Insight Group, and the Chef Ann Foundation.
The Los Angeles Unified School District and the New York City Department of Education together employ more than 10,000 food service workers serving over 2 million students. Despite their critical role in student nutrition, school food service workers face persistent challenges affecting program quality and workforce stability, including low wages and precarious schedules.
Institute researchers Nevin Cohen and Katherine Tomaino Fraser will analyze how certain employment practices in large urban districts affect worker retention, job satisfaction, and school meal program quality; identify models for workforce development and career advancement applicable across districts; and examine how different approaches to school food work and programs like scratch cooking and farm to school influence worker satisfaction and program sustainability.
Using a worker-centered, mixed-methods approach, the study will survey 375 workers and conduct 40-50 in-depth interviews, engaging workers and their unions in the research.
The study team will document worker-driven innovations and examine the effects of contract provisions. Robust analysis of workforce patterns and their relationships to program quality in these two large districts will generate evidence-based recommendations for professional development and career advancement, strategies for improving job quality through labor-management partnerships, and insights applicable to unionized and non-unionized settings.
