As I reflect on ACF’s accomplishments
this past year, one way that members
have made a difference stands out: our
involvement with the initiative that first lady
Michelle Obama is championing, which
addresses child nutrition and obesity.
invited to be part of a roundtable discussion
on how to help promote the Chefs Move
to Schools program. ACF will work with
several national organizations to develop
unified communications and support for
this initiative. The goal is to simplify the
matching process for chefs and schools,
develop materials for chefs working in the
schools and increase the number of chefs
volunteering around the country.
A Healthier
Lifestyle for Children
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By Michael Ty, CEC, AAC
The Chefs Move to Schools program, which
began in June 2010, energized many of our
members, and chefs across the country have
embraced the cause. They are involved in
schools in various ways, including working
directly with school-foodservice personnel on
school lunch programs and helping to cultivate
school gardens. There are many ways for
chefs to be a part of the program, and you can
find more information at www.letsmove.gov.
In August 2010, in Anaheim, Calif., we
implemented a program at our national
convention that allows us to give back to
children and parents by providing nutritional
awareness in the community where the
convention is held. Chefs Outreach to the
Community, in partnership with the ACFEF
Chef & Child Foundation, has impacted the
lives of more than 200 family members over
the past two years.
The USDA Recipes for Healthy Kids
Challenge, which began in September 2010,
was designed to improve school meals and the
health of children by creating nutritious recipes
to include on school lunch menus. The contest
partnered a chef in the community with local
school-foodservice professionals, students and
parents to develop recipes in three categories.
A group of ACF chefs and their chef helpers at
the World Chefs Tour Against Hunger in South
Africa in August.
Convention attendees volunteered their time
to come in a day early to implement and
execute nutritional awareness in these high-risk communities. The impact on families was
immeasurable, and they truly appreciated
the time and education that was provided.
This year, in Dallas, officials from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture joined us at Chefs
Outreach to the Community day.
Five teams from each category were
chosen to compete in the semifinals,
and each semifinalist team had the
opportunity to showcase its recipe before
a judges’ panel that included an ACF-approved culinary judge. Members of the
ACF Culinary Competition Committee
worked diligently this past year to
evaluate and judge the USDA Recipes
for Healthy Kids competition, and the
final contest was held at the 2011 ACF
National Convention in Dallas.
In August, I had a life-changing experience
when I gathered a team of ACF members
to be part of an event that I have heard
much about over the years—the World
Chefs Tour Against Hunger. This year,
it was held in South Africa (for the third
time since 1993) and hosted by the South
African Chefs Association. More than
260 international chefs from 43 countries
converged on Johannesburg, and ACF
was well represented with 12 chefs and
family members.
I want to express my gratitude to ACF
Culinary Competition Committee chair David
Turcotte, CEC, AAC, and the ACF judges
who participated in the screening process
of each recipe, as well as those who judged
throughout the competition. They visited
each school that entered a recipe in one of
the three categories, and chose the teams
that came to Dallas for the finals.
The objective was to showcase our talent
and raise 5 million rand to feed hungry
children in South Africa for the next five
years. The entire group of chefs was
briefed, given our mission, and divided into
five subgroups to work in Johannesburg
and four other cities in South Africa.
ACF first partnered with the USDA Food and
Nutrition Service in 2010, and our involvement
with the USDA has grown. Recently, we were
The event’s sponsors provided
transportation, hotel accommodation
and food, and each team was assigned a
hotel from Southern Sun Hotels, South
Africa. At each hotel venue, the teams
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