Armed with clipboards and questions, P.S. 150 students Leo Feiwel and Dylan Ebanks went on assignment last month to interview local restaurateurs. Their first subject: Tracy Nieporent from Tribeca Grill.

”What gave you the idea to create a restaurant?” (He loves people.)

What do you like the least? (It’s very challenging in this economy.)

Do you take reservations? (They do.)

So began the kickoff meeting for the 16th annual Taste of Tribeca, held at the Downtown Community Center. The cub reporters from P.S. 150 and P.S. 234 and the baskets of chocolate chip cookies didn’t make the mission of this meeting any less serious.

There are still a little more than three months to go before the al fresco culinary extravaganza that brings more than 5,000 food-lovers and 60 Tribeca restaurateurs to Duane Street. But for co-chairs Sean Murphy Turner and Jimmy Carbone and a core of 25 volunteers (300 on the day of the event) the to-do list, from obtaining city permits to renting tents to finding corporate sponsors, seems endless.

The event, the proceeds of which support art and music programs in Tribeca’s P.S. 234 and P.S. 150, relies on the generosity of local restaurants who each serve up 750 3- to 4-ounce servings.

Unlike last year’s kick-off, when worry over the economy hung in the air and Taste organizers even questioned whether they could hold a Taste of Tribeca, the mood was upbeat.

Already, Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery, had committed to sponsoring the day’s entertainment. And initial contacts with some of last year’s sponsors, Turner said, indicated that they were “on board.”

The news for the restaurants was that Taste organizers were thinking of even more marketing strategies to help their businesses.

Turner showed a mock-up of what she called the “restaurant commitment board.”

“This will be six-foot high and prominently displayed in each school’s lobby,” she explained. “Every time a new restaurant signs up to participate in Taste of Tribeca, its name will be added.”

A steady stream of email blasts and a big public relations push will remind the community “over and over again to support the restaurants that support Taste,”  Turner said. They are also working on “more tv presence for Taste chefs,” Carbone said, and are discussing a collaboration with Zagat for a series of wine tastings and other restaurant promotions  in the weeks leading up to the event.

“We hear every day at school,” Turner said, “that at Taste of Tribeca, parents found a new restaurant they didn’t know about and they’re now fans of it.”

The principals of both schools were on hand to speak directly to the restaurant owners.

“We can do a lot of things we couldn’t do without the Taste of Tribeca—bring in a dance teacher, a storyteller, art programs,” Maggie Siena, head of P.S. 150, said with feeling. “We’re incredibly grateful to you.”