New Food Chief Joins City Schools

The new director in charge of food served in public-school cafeterias has a palate kids can relate to.

Gail Sharry (pictured) will take over as New Haven public schools food services director on June 17 with a $120,000 salary. The school board welcomed her and approved her appointment at last Monday’s regular board meeting. 

Sharry is currently the food services director for New London schools. She said she will do ​“double duty” until New London finds a replacement.

The job has been open since last August, when Tim ​“Chef Tim” Cipriano left New Haven to take a job in Guilford. The school district conducted a broad search to fill his position and made an offer to the leading candidate, but the candidate didn’t take the job, according to schools Chief Operating Officer Will Clark. So Clark worked with two consultants to cover food duties throughout the school year.

Sharry joins New Haven at a time when the district, after concentrating on fresh food initiatives under Chef Tim’s leadership, is focusing on getting a better handle on its budget. The school food program costs $12 million per year, but takes in only $10 million in revenue, running up a $2 million deficit, according to Clark. As Clark and administrators focus on reining in costs, some of the 186 school cafeteria workers, whose labor contract expired three years ago, have been organizing a new campaign calling on the schools to hire more cooks. Click here to read more about that.

Sharry brings to the table two decades of experience in the field — and an understanding of kids’ palates. Asked what she ate for lunch last Monday, she first demurred. (“I can’t say.”) Then she agreed to divulge her favorite lunch: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with white milk.