Baron Ramon Young.
A Michigan public school district child nutrition manager will be the city’s next top schools food official, thanks to a hire newly approved by the Board of Education.
On Monday afternoon, the city’s school board voted unanimously to hire Baron Ramon Young as New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) next director of food service. They took that vote during the board’s latest hybrid meeting, held in-person at Barack Obama School on Farnham Avenue and online via Zoom.
Young, who currently serves as regional operations manager of child nutrition for the Ida Public Schools district in Michigan, will start his new New Haven job on July 10.
He’ll replace long-time NHPS Director of Food Services Gail Cairns-Sharry, who will retire at the end of this school year after working for the district for 10 years. Young’s hire comes amid a school-by-school push to reduce food waste through composting and food share tables, among other initiatives.
NHPS Supt. Iline Tracy said like most director search processes, her cabinet carried out interviews of candidates for this position. Then she interviewed the candidates as well.
Tracy described Young as “well qualified for the position” based on his résumé and her interview with him.
Young’s starting salary will be $140,000. He has a bachelor of science degree in Computer Information Systems from Alabama State University.
“I look forward to working with each and every last one of you and making the child nutrition program in New Haven the best in the nation,” Young said while Zooming into Monday’s meeting.
Watch the full Board meeting above.
I regularly interact with school kids.The one question I raise that invariably prompts quick responses is “how are lunches at your school?” Even when kids think the food at school is OK, they have very clear opinions on what they like (pizza) and what they don’t like.
Mr. Young is going to have a very challenging job. One challenge is the amount of food that is wasted. I am looking forward to his ideas on how to share food that is still usable with organizations such as Haven’s Harvest and to compost food that is no longer usable.
At the same time, many NHPS families are food insecure. I would be interested in hearing his ideas on how NHPS can help families address this problem.