If you've stayed in the hospital long enough to eat a meal, you know that the food isn't the best. Same with school dining halls, or prison cafeterias. Maharaj explores the world of institutional food service and why organizations have cut corners on food budgets, as well as what we can do about it. She advocates for fresh, prepared-on-site meals, and has ambitious ideas for improving mass-produced food in general. This will appeal to readers who enjoy well-written nonfiction, those looking for a cause, and anyone who cares about what we eat.

When it is snowy and cold outside, superspeed readers like me can read 150 - 200+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today. LOL

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

A beloved chef takes on institutional food and sparks a revolution.

Good food generally doesn’t arrive on a tray: hospital food is famously ridiculed, chronic student hunger has deemed a rite of passage, and prison meals are considered part of the punishment. 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.

Take Back the Tray is a part manifesto, a part memoir from the trenches, and a blueprint for reclaiming control from corporations and brutal bottom lines. 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 the government right down to the person sorting the trash. The need is clear, the time is now, and this revolution is delicious.

What is the #1 reason my parents do not want to go into a retirement/nursing home? THE FOOD!!!!!  My mother is sick of cooking (she is 92 and I don't blame her) my SIL and I fill their freezer with food and prepped-microwaveable-meals as apparently "Meals on Wheels" needs an overhaul as well!!! (We are both serious meal preppers and proud owners of InstantPots!)

Maharaj writes a book that is right on point and relevant in every country, city, town, hospital, facility, school, etc. Food is not just sustenance, it is part of our soul: yes, prisoners should be fed well, seniors need nutrition and school-age kids should not be forced to have ketchup considered a vegetable like Ronald Regan said it was.  Her passion is evident on these pages and everyone should have access to healthy food when they are not in charge of the cooking. 

This is not a cookbook, but it is a read that everyone who loves to cook should read and reassess what they can do to get municipalities bein able to afford to feed people well. Students should starve or live on Instant Ramen because they are 4/$1 at No Frills. (I eat a lot of them at months end so I know how much they cost..welcome to life when your salary is way below the poverty line!) The loss of Kellogg's here in London affected the school breakfast program here and nearby so immensely that it sent shockwaves through the social services agencies, like the one I work with. How can it be better/cheaper/to make the cereal in Thailand and ship it back??? It is time to start a revolution, people!!

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I love emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/etc. " on Instagram and Twitter... Get a real job, people!) so let's give it 🍏🍏🍏🍏🍏