The Center for Advancement of Foodservice Education posted a story on their website about the recent partnership between the chef instructors at Le Cordon Bleu in L.A. and the USC Annenberg research program Quick! Help for Meals.
Quick! Help for Meals is a program that was developed by USC Annenberg Professor Peter Clarke and researcher Susan Evans to make nutritious food and cooking accessible to people who rely on food banks. The program provides customized booklets featuring recipes that cater to the needs of each household, using produce and other food typically provided by food banks.
The new partnership between the culinary school and Quick! Help for Meals aims to develop new recipes, as well as modify older ones, that use produce and are easy to make.
The program is also developing a mobile application funded by a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The app, which will be tested in the fall, will feature the modified recipes from the Quick! Help for Meals booklet, as well as the 60 new recipes from the Le Cordon Bleu instructors.
“There are so many people around the country who rely on food pantries,” said Evans. “To many, green beans are exotic, cauliflower is a mystery and even carrots are a challenge, beyond shredding or boiling. The chef instructors at Le Cordon Bleu have been instrumental in updating and creating new recipes that make fresh produce unintimidating and delicious.”
larke and Evans have been working on the Quick! Help for Meals program for past 20 years. They have helped incorporate fresh produce into 165 food banks across the country.
