An important book on a topic close to my heart. Both informative and innovative, I recommend this for anyone interested in knowing more about the topic of institutional lunches. It's high time something was done about it!

I think everyone should listen or read this book because it’s very informative and something (as a country) we need to change.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. This story was very inspiring. I loved it!

Thank you so much to @ecwpress and @netgalley for the gifted ALC of Take Back The Tray: Revolutionizing Food in Hospitals, Schools, and Other Institutions by Johsna Maharaj!

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Synopsis from the publisher: A beloved chef takes on institutional food and sparks a revolution with this manifesto, memoir from the trenches, and blueprint for reclaiming control from corporations and brutal bottom lines. “With hard-won insights and deep commitment, Joshna Maharaj takes us on a mouthwatering tour of what our collective food future might be.” ? Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System Good food generally doesn’t arrive on a tray, but Chef Joshna Maharaj knows that institutional kitchens have the ability to produce good, nourishing food, because she’s been making it happen over the past 14 years. She’s served meals to people who’d otherwise go hungry, baked fresh scones for maternity ward mothers, and dished out wholesome, scratch-made soups to stressed-out undergrads. She’s determined to bring health, humanity, and hospitality back to institutional food while also building sustainability, supporting the local economy, and reinvigorating the work of frontline staff. Maharaj reconnects food with health, wellness, education, and rehabilitation in a way that serves people, not just budgets, and proves change is possible with honest, sustained commitment on all levels, from government right down to the person sorting the trash. The need is clear, the time is now, and this revolution is delicious.

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I am a huge believer in the healing power of healthy food. This book was both enlightening and at times frustrating that these institutions, that we should be able to trust to provide healthy food, will go back to unhealthy options when not pressured. This is a great book for anyone who:

-Enjoys foodie reads

-Would like a behind the scenes look at how menu decisions are made in major institutions.

-The progress and road blocks in making healthier options more widely available.

-Loves nonfiction.

Pub date July 2021.

this was a really interesting. Learning about food insecurity is something I have been really interested in so I can help in anyway I possibly can. This taught me so much about what causes this sort of thing. It was fascinating. This is something I think a lot of people should read and learn more about.

Joshna Maharaj is a chef and a multiple-time TED speaker. She has built a reputation around helping to improve the food served in institutions like hospitals, foods, and prisons. She is passionate about local and fresh ingredients vs. just heating up stuff that comes frozen or in bags. She has drastically changed the meals at hospitals and schools at which she has worked, much to the praise of the people eating the food.

I enjoy food reads, so this was an interesting one to me. I've read plenty of books about food in restaurants or even more generally "eating locally". I didn't previously know much about institutional food other than school lunches as a kid or the lackluster meals I got served in the maternity ward. It was great to see someone looking to improve the meals for these "captive audiences". It is better for their health and also for our environment and local economies.
I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by the author and she did an excellent job with it. Her public speaking experience shone through.

Before reading this book, I was familiar with the slow food/farm-to-table/local eating movement thanks to Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. However, those books mostly focus on individual eaters or family groups.

This book takes a deep dive into the world of institutionalized food service for organizations like schools and hospitals and how to provide food for the masses that is delicious, wholesome, healthy, and hopefully even local. The author has spent several years working with institutions to source and cook food those organizations can be proud of. In these pages, she share triumphs, missteps, and hard-won lessons she’s picked up up along the way.

I particularly loved reading about The Stop. It sounds like an amazing place to be nourished with good food, useful skills, and strong community. I had never heard of a place quite like The Stop before—a combination community garden, soup kitchen, food bank, kitchen classroom, and community center.

I appreciated that the audiobook was narrated by the author herself. It is clear both from the words themselves and her voice when she speaks them that Joshna feels very passionately about her work and her efforts to feed all people good, wholesome, quality food.

This was an interesting piece of non fiction that explored the challenges of providing good food in institutional settings. I don't read a lot of non fiction but I found this one easy to follow and not overly long. The author approached the topic with a very balanced mindset, recognizing the challenges without demonizing any the individuals involved in these systems. While this is not my topical read, I found the topic to be pretty fascinating. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic. I listened to the audio version which had excellent narration. 

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.