Ways to Give
Chef Bill Telepan and Wellness in the Schools are honored to have been selected by Food & Wine as one of the 10 outstanding chefs/charities named to the Chefs Make Change (CMC) campaign, which runs though February 15th.
Chefs Make Change was recently announced in the February issue of F&W magazine; available on newsstands January 10th. Its goal is to raise one million dollars for the chefs’ charities, an amount that represents approximately one dollar for each F&W subscriber. Each chef/charity pair are collecting donations individually, if you are inspired to donate to WITS please click here and enter "Chefs Make Change" or "CMC"in the space for designations. Click here to learn more about CMC.
| Bagasse Lunch Trays
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WITS promotes the use of environmentally-friendly materials in schools through our Green for Kids program goals. For this reason we encourage the use of lunch trays made from bagasse, the fiber material left after the extraction of the sugar-bearing juice from sugar cane, over styrofoam trays. Bagasse is a biodegradeable material, unlike styrofoam, which is a petroleum-based material that can take millennia to decompose.The bagasse trays break down within 45 days in landfills or household composts. |
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| Water Jet |
Water is the best beverage for staying hydrated and hydration is important for staying mentally alert. Providing the Water Jet to a school ensures that students have a chance to stay hydrated with cold NYC water—an alternative to higher-calorie options such as soda, sports drinks, fruit juice, and milk. As a bonus, the water jet is an environmentally-friendly and low-cost alternative to water bottles (8 out of 10 plastic water bottles ends up in a landfill). |
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| Salad Bar |
Both academic research and on the ground experience in schools across the country are increasingly demonstrating that school children significantly increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables when given a variety of choices in a school salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by trying new items, incorporating greater variety into their diets, and increasing their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. |
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| Grass Fed Beef |
For health, environmental, and ethical reasons WITS supports the use of grass-fed beef in school meals. There are a number of nutritional differences between the meat of pasture-raised and feedlot-raised animals. Meat from grass-fed cattle, sheep, and bison is lower in total fat than feedlot-meats; if the meat is very lean, it can have one third as much fat as a similar cut from a grain-fed animal. Most grass fed beef comes from cattle that receive no hormones or antibiotics in their feed and were humanely raised and handled. |
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| Extra Virgin Olive Oil |
Wellness in the Schools works with Whole Foods Market to provide Extra Virgin Olive Oil for use in our WITS Labs, and encourages our schools to supply their kitchens with olive oil whenever possible. Olive oil is a natural juice that is derived from the olive. It is an all natural product, as compared with other cooking oils. Olive oil has the largest amount of heart healthy monounsaturated fat compared to all other naturally produced oils and adds a wonderful, light flavor to foods. |
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| Coach for Kids Equipment |
Coach for Kids operates in the recess yards of NYC public schools. Our trained coaches work to encourage the least active children to engage in fun and healthy physical activities. WITS coaches inspire and mentor children while teaching them basic sport-specific skills and developing engaging games in which they can use those skills. Your donation will provide basic sports and activity equipment to our coaches so that they can more effectively get kids moving during recess. |
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| Sponsor WITS Labs |
The WITS Labs are the component of the Cook for Kids program that takes place in the classroom. Interactive cooking and nutrition demonstrations are incorporated into the school day for children. In the WITS Labs our WITS-in-Residence Cooks introduce children to seasonal produce and have them prepare and taste the produce in a variety of ways: raw, roasted and in a recipe. Recipes are given to children to take home and at least one of the recipes is prepared in the cafeteria during the tasting week. |
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| Sponsor a School |
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Make a General Donation |
Click here to donate to WITS and your donation will be allocated towards areas of the greatest need. Most public schools only allocate $.90 per child for lunch, so every penny donated goes a very long way. |
If donating to a specific WITS school, please include the name of the school when completing your donation online.
*1,000 servings is the minimum purchase order of grass fed beef under the current NYC SchoolFood contract agreement