The Power of Healthy Food

Isn’t it amazing to look back at the things we took for granted as kids and realize how blessed we were?

I grew up in a small neighborhood outside of Tel-Aviv (Israel). My father was a pilot and traveled most weekdays, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom taking care of us kids (and that was not an easy job!). When asked about my childhood, one of the strongest memories and always the first one to pop into my head, is having a home cooked lunch EVERY DAY when I got home from school. Pizza? Frozen meals? Cereal? Those foods were not even on my radar as a kid.

There is something magical and powerful about coming home and the smell of soup bubbling on the stove, drifting in from the kitchen. There is something comforting about eating food made with care and love – and don’t get me wrong, my talents as a Chef did not come from my mom.

We did not have a kitchen or a cafeteria as part of the elementary or middle school blueprints - a huge barrier when trying to feed hundreds of kids. One option was to send lunch with the kids daily – I do not know about you, but my kids are getting very tired with the same format of food. Sending lunch every day required planning ahead and a lot of creativity to please three kids with three hundred different preferences! Not to mention the cost and time in the morning to make all that food and pack it all up to send with them daily.

Many other parents felt that there was a need to have another option, and the PTO organized a lunch plan working with different local restaurants. They curated a menu of different daily offerings that changed with each new semester. This food was mostly healthy and offered a variety of options that could be delivered to the school for the kid’s lunch. Those amazing parent volunteers took turns in receiving and distributing the food during what was a short lunch break. Sounds great, right? The kids have a choice, I know what my children are eating, AND we help local restaurants in our area. But this does not come cheap, and many students were not able to participate.

How many people in the United States can afford a $5 - $7 lunch per kid, per day? I think you know the answer…. Not many. However, all families, who are just like you and I, want to see their children thrive. Many families rely on the National School Lunch Program(NSLP) in their community as the main meal of their children’s day. These children depend on NSLP to provide their daily meals - shouldn’t their food be as healthy and nutritious as possible? ALL kids deserve food that is good for them, regardless of social circumstance. They should have access to fresh, healthy meals that are more than just calories and heavily processed ingredients.

The power of healthy, nourishing food is priceless in its importance for our well being – physically and mentally. It is even more important to support kids’ learning with the right fuel so that they can most effectively process information as they become their own person. Only now, as an adult woman and parent, do I understand what was so intuitive to me. I did not need to stop and make a choice when it came to my kids because inherently, I knew to appreciate the importance that good food played in my life and the life of my family. However, I did need to stop and think about the many communities throughout our nation where the students are deprived of what should be a fundamental pillar for them as well. I would like to make sure that kids in 2022, in a developed country, can create the same connection to food that I had as a kid. So they can fuel their brain, body and soul with quality, tasty, nourishing food that will help them bloom into the next generation of leaders in our country.

Einav Gefen is SVP Chef / Innovator at Restaurant Associates. Previously at Unilever, Gefen began as Corporate Head Chef in 2008 and moved to Corporate Executive Chef in 2016. Her career began as a Pastry Chef at Orna & Ella, but soon after added the title of Sous Chef to her responsibilities at Mul-Yam in Tel Aviv, Israel. While there, Mul-Yam was awarded the top rating by Gault-Millau, one of the most influential French restaurant guides, and named the world’s 114th best restaurant by Les Grandes Tables du Monde. A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump’s), she interned at New York’s renowned restaurant Daniel and was the Executive Chef at Daniel in Manhattan’s East Village.

As a chef, she lives and breathes food. As a CPG executive, Einav understands scale, food safety, stakeholder management, and the impact a single action can bring. As an advocate for more sustainable kitchen culture, she knows the value and benefit of the right work environment and the importance of respecting and recognizing individuals for the success of a business. As a female leader, Einav knows the challenges of navigating dedication to both her family and career and recognizes the importance of work/life balance. As a human, Einav believes she has a responsibility to give back, as a person she has the passion and the desire to drive change for the better. She would like to look back one day and know that somehow, somewhere she helped make a difference.