Wellness Committee

Overview
Wellness in the Schools (WITS) is a non-profit, community based organization founded in 2005 in order to improve the environment, nutrition, and fitness in NYC public schools. In an effort to combat childhood obesity and create healthier environments in which to learn, WITS developed Cook for Kids where local chefs work alongside kitchen staff to create healthier meals for NYC’s public school children.

And now, an open letter from PS3′s WITS liaison,  Deborah Soffel:

To the PS 3 Community:

It is a thrill to be back with you this school year as we continue the WITS Cook for Kids program in the lunchroom. We launched right in to our WITS menu on day one and we will continue to add new items throughout the school year. It is great to be back and see the familiar young faces, a little taller now, and many new students as well.

The WITS menu continues to feature healthy lunch options cooked from scratch and a daily salad bar. This year we are thrilled to be part of the Garden to Café program where we will be able to use the fresh herbs and vegetables that are being grown in our own schoolyard!

Beginning next month we will be adding chicken to our menu twice a week, every other week. This extra chicken day will fall on every other Monday, a day that had been our pasta day. The Mediterranean theme of that day will continue but it will no longer be an exclusively meatless day. The October menu will reflect this change, as you shall see when we send the menu out at the end of this month.

Barbara, Willie and Maria are all back in the kitchen this year. My role with the program has changed somewhat. PS3 is now considered a Tier Two school, which means that the WITS program was in place in your lunchroom all last year with a WITS cook in the kitchen everyday (me). This year I will function as a WITS liaison, visiting the school at least once a week to check in with the kitchen, continuing to be a supportive and active resource for them.

I look forward to meeting everyone this year and will be attending many school events. The Wellness Committee has many exciting plans for creating school wide events that feature the importance of healthy eating.

Please feel free to stop by the cafeteria to say hello or email me at: Deborah@wellnessintheschools.org

Thanks for all your support!

Deborah Soffel, Wellness in The School Liaison