Education United States Project #24814

Get schools cooking!

by Chef Ann Foundation

Project Report | Mar 2, 2023
Welcoming the Fifth Cohort of Get Schools Cooking

By Chef Ann Foundation | Staff Contributor

We are delighted to kick off the fifth cohort of Get Schools Cooking (GSC) with seven new school districts from across the country. This February, the Get Schools Cooking partner teams and the food service directors from each cohort district gathered for a three-day workshop in beautiful Bellingham, Washington. The food service director at Bellingham Public Schools, a Get Schools Cooking Cohort 1 district participant, welcomed Cohort 5 to share about his district’s operational evolution, experiences participating in the GSC program, and current implementation of scratch cooking in school kitchens and the district central kitchen.

About the Program

During the workshop, directors received an introduction to the five key focus areas for transitioning to scratch cooking - Food, Finance, Facilities, Human Resources and Marketing; met their fellow cohort directors, and walked away inspired to start making tangible improvements in their school food programs.

Get Schools Cooking is the Chef Ann Foundation’s most intensive and holistic school food transformation program. The three-year grant includes an onsite assessment, a comprehensive report of recommendations, strategic planning support, technical assistance, networking opportunities, and the opportunity to receive systems assistance funding. You can read more about program details here.

In collaboration with our generous program funding partners we look forward to working with the following school districts on improving their school food programs.

District Participants:

BROWNSVILLE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Brownsville, Texas
Enrollment: 37,983
Schools: 54
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 100%

Brownsville Independent School District (BISD) is the largest district to ever participate in the Get Schools Cooking Program. The impact that the BISD food service program has on their Rio Grande Valley community cannot be overstated. The district has high participation and hopes to identify areas of improvement and increase food quality for their students and families through the Get Schools Cooking program.

“The Chef Ann Foundation inarguably provides a solution to our calling, purpose, and desired outcome of creating school food change. Moreover, it supports and demonstrates strategies that [will] help us increase healthy food selection and consumption, thereby improving students’ dietary choices.” - Food & Nutrition Services Director

DILLINGHAM SCHOOL DISTRICT

Dillingham, Alaska
Enrollment: 427
Schools: 2
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 100%

Dillingham City School District is the smallest district to ever participate in the Get Schools Cooking Program. The remote location and massive landscapes present specific challenges and benefits to transitioning to a scratch cook school food service program. The department hopes to increase variety in their menu selection and believes that Get Schools Cooking can help support their staff to create a positive change in their program.

“The redundancy of the menu and service has created an atmosphere within the kitchen [that] we would like to shift. The district hopes to support food service staff by providing experts to assist in the review of all processes and evaluate for possible change. We understand that not only the nutritional value of provided food but also the quality to entice children to eat are critical for the success of our student body. This directly aligns with the work that Chef Ann Foundation champions.” -Grant Administrator

ELLENSBURG SCHOOL DISTRICT

Ellensburg, Washington
Enrollment: 3,200
Schools: 6
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 41%

Ellensburg School District has taken positive steps over the last year to increase the food quality and sustainability of their program by increasing local purchasing and switching to reusable trays in the lunchrooms. Their goal is to take the school food program to the next level by providing more farm to table meals to the students and transition the perception of school food from institutional to inspirational.

“I want students to fall in love with new foods and understand the relationship between the source of their food, the people cooking it, and themselves. I hope to someday see universal free meals in our country (or at least WA state) and I want to be ready for that with a dynamic and valuable program. Access to good food is a basic human right and I chose this career to advocate for that specifically in our younger generations. We believe the Chef Ann Foundation can help take us to that level.” - Child Nutrition Director

HARDIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Hardin, Montana
Enrollment: 1,935
Schools: 7
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 100%

Hardin School District has a well-developed farm to school program with successes in curriculum integration and local purchasing. They incorporate student feedback into their menus and uplift voices in their indigenous communities. They look forward to partnering with the Chef Ann Foundation in creating a culture of health across their district and community.

“Our program is excited by this chance to make the transition to fresh, real food in a sustainable way. Rather than programs in jeopardy with leadership changes and high turnover, the Get Schools Cooking program allows our community to make lasting, self-sustaining changes.” - Farm to School Director

HOWARD-SUAMICO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Green Bay, Wisconsin
Enrollment: 5,879
Schools: 8
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 24%

Over the past five years, the food service department at Howard-Suamico School District has focused on adding to and developing the culinary talent on their teams, increasing farm to school programming, and developing new recipes. They have already incorporated a considerable amount of scratch cooking and look forward to working with the Chef Ann Foundation to hone their strategy for the years to come.

“Not only is this allowing us to flip our flow in the way that we as leaders are in the districts, but it also is perfect timing to come out of covid and be able to look at the bigger picture. That bigger picture is what’s best for kids, and scratch [cooking] is a part of that process.” - Director of School Nutrition

LEWISTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Lewiston, Maine
Enrollment: 5,239
Schools: 7
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 92%

Lewiston Public Schools has made great strides in professional development for their kitchen staff. Culturally inclusive meals are of particular importance for the Lewiston community as a large African immigrant population coexists with traditional New England populations. They look forward to working with the Chef Ann Foundation to learn ways of engaging their communities, marketing their program, and sharing knowledge with surrounding districts.

“I needed this. I needed to be with a bunch of like minded people. I get caught in the weeds. You hear no’s, you hear barriers… so to hear this opportunity, to break that all down, I can go back and really get my team engaged.” - Nutrition and Transportation Director

WINDHAM CENTRAL SUPERVISORY UNION

Townshend, Vermont
Enrollment: 782
Schools: 8
Percentage of Students From Economically Disadvantaged Households: 48%

The Windham Central Supervisory Union food service team brings openness and creativity to scratch cooking. In recent years, they have shifted to more local, seasonal, and wholesome meals, particularly at the secondary level. They are excited to bring more structure and planning to their program and thus increase capacity for more scratch cooking in every school.

“As a relatively tiny, rural district, we face unique challenges in supplying high quality meals. Working with the Chef Ann Foundation, we will be able to build the infrastructure needed to provide training and give the guidance needed to improve procurement choices and scratch cooking.” - Food Service Director

----

These seven districts are joining a group of dedicated and passionate school districts leading the way in school food change. Previous cohorts have shown successes including salad bar implementation, removing chocolate milk and chicken nuggets from their serving lines, and increasing local purchasing. The Get Schools Cooking program is an initiative that takes school districts all the way, supporting them in bringing delicious and nutritious food to students. Learn more about the Get Schools Cooking program, and sign up to receive program updates (like the next open application).

Links:

kick off the fifth cohort of Get Schools Cooking

Permalink

Nov 3, 2022
Healthier Ingredients for Healthier Kids

By Chef Ann Foundation | Staff Contributor

Scratch made Chipotle Ranch Dressing

We’ve all picked up a snack at the store and discovered that the nutrition label contains a plethora of mystery ingredients - often additives and unfamiliar ingredients we can’t pronounce. Sometimes we’ll put that box back on the shelf and make a healthier choice. But many foods don’t come with a nutrition label, like lunch trays. Those same additives & processed ingredients often find their way into school meals, and into the growing bodies of our kids.

We know scratch cooking is the best way to reduce unwanted ingredients. Scratch cooking uses real food with quality, whole ingredients and can help students develop healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives. When you cook from scratch, you can choose your ingredients and sourcing. Additionally, scratch cooking adds nutrients and flavor, allows you to control the sodium and sugar content, and can even be more cost effective than serving pre-packaged foods.

We recognize that school food professionals are still facing various challenges like supply chain issues, labor shortages, and rising food and supply costs. By swapping out a few recipes, school food programs can take incremental steps towards a healthier menu. With scratch cooking, school food programs can not only support the health of students but also lower their program’s environmental impact, create viable career opportunities, and bring equity to the table.

Here are some of the most impactful, kid-approved dishes to reduce highly-processed ingredients through scratch cooking:

Scratch-Made Mac

Mac and Cheese is a kid-favorite dish just about everywhere! Common mac and cheese recipes come from a prepackaged box that is usually high in sodium and contains numerous preservatives, artificial food colorings, and fake cheese products.

Our homemade cheese sauce recipe allows you to control the sodium content by seasoning it yourself. It also incorporates simple dairy ingredients and whole grain pasta for a creamy, nutritious made-from-scratch dish.

French Toast Makeover

French toast sticks are a fast-food-style school food staple and are often high in preservatives and sugar. Our recipe remixes these sugary sticks into a homestyle casserole dish.

This French Toast Casserole incorporates whole grain bread, fresh dairy products, and limited amounts of sugar and cinnamon for a yummy take on this traditional breakfast dish. We recommend serving with a fruit sauce for a healthier alternative to syrup products, which can often be loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Preparing this delicious casserole and fruit sauce from scratch can also help phase-out single-use packaging from your students’ lunch trays - a win for your students’ health and the environment.

Dressing it Fresh

Making your own ranch dressing is such an easy win, since kids absolutely love ranch with their favorite veggie sticks and salads. Our recipe calls for blending together zesty herbs along with fresh dairy products into a creamy, delicious dressing.

This recipe is great to make in a large batch - it’ll stay fresh when refrigerated for up to two weeks. Making salad dressings from scratch also eliminates single serve packets from your food program. We’ve seen firsthand that kids eat more veggies when they have this homemade ranch to dip them in!

Pizza to Be Proud Of

Another great method to start transitioning away from a highly-processed menu item is to assemble your own pizzas. You can prepare your own pizzas by simply purchasing a high quality, whole grain, oven rising crust and topping it with homemade marinara sauce, shredded cheese and any kind of toppings. The options for what you can put on a pizza are endless - especially when it comes to veggies! Kids will love this speed scratch recipe and staff can feel good about both the quality and taste of the pizza.

Fried Chicken - Simplified

Our oven fried chicken recipe is a healthier version of a traditional fried chicken dish - a comfort food classic. When you make a recipe like this from scratch, you can choose where your food comes from, control the seasoning, and oven roast rather than fry the chicken.

We recommend sourcing organic chicken from a local farm if possible and hand breading in-house for a perfectly crispy, flavorful dish. The final product is not only delicious and satisfying, but you can feel good about serving this high quality, healthier chicken to your students so they have the proper fuel to make it through their school day!

By incorporating scratch cooking, school food programs can ensure that children are not ingesting harmful chemicals that can have potentially negative effects on their long-term health. And for students that rely on school food for their daily meals, scratch-cooked options made with whole ingredients can significantly increase the nutrients that they’re consuming each day.

Through scratch cooking, school food professionals have the opportunity to further develop their culinary skills and positively impact their students’ knowledge about healthy food. We realize that making these changes isn’t always easy and accessible. However, by taking strides toward preparing menu items with simpler, healthier ingredients, we’re able to better the health of children and the planet.

Scratch made French Toast Casserole

Permalink

Jul 8, 2022
Serving Up a Brighter Future: California's Roadmap To School Food Reform

By Chef Ann Foundation | Staff Contributor

California is leading the way in the movement towards making healthy school meals available for all students. Read more to learn about the innovative improvements that are happening in California schools beginning this summer.

There is so much momentum in the state of California for school food. Thanks to the generous support and leadership from Governor Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the future of school food in California is looking bright. The First Partner’s Farm to School Roadmap to Success provides a guide to helping school-aged children in California have access to fresh, nutritious foods so that they may be more successful throughout their school day.

Read on to learn about a few current opportunities happening in California.

State-wide Initiatives

Possibly the biggest win in school food for California was the passing of the School Meals for All bill in 2021. This bill ensured that all CA students will have access to two free meals a day starting August 2022. California is not only leading the way for the rest of the country, but also setting a great example for why healthy school meals for all are so important.

Additionally, over the past two years, CA school districts were awarded 60 million dollars in Farm to School Incubator grants. These competitive grants will support projects that foster sustainability, focus on nutrition education, and promote equitable procurement. Programs have the opportunity to apply for funds under the following categories:

Track 1: The California Farm to School K-12 Procurement and Education Grant
Track 2: The California Farm to School Partnership Grant
Track 3: The California Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE) Grant
Track 4: The California Farm to School Producer Grant

Studies prove that children who eat nutritious foods at school perform better academically, have fewer behavior problems, and see improvement in mental cognition. Farm to School programs not only support school children through these avenues, but directly contribute to the local economy as well as help to promote a healthier environment.

KIT Funding

In addition to the Farm to School funds, CA also just awarded districts 150 million in KIT (Kitchen Infrastructure Training) funds. Districts opted into this program in January and recently learned their allocation amounts. Funds were broken down into two categories: Equipment and Training. Districts have until June 30, 2023 to spend these dollars.

The purpose of KIT funds is to provide resources for school food programs to purchase kitchen equipment, remodel or make upgrades to kitchens, and provide food service staff with professional development training to increase access to more nutritious foods for students.

Districts have one year to spend their funds and utilize this incredible opportunity to revitalize their kitchen equipment and gain access to professional development for their staff. To help support districts, the Chef Ann Foundation can provide equipment recommendations, as well as virtual and onsite training. This can include School Food Institute courses taught by founder Chef Ann Cooper, virtual technical assistance sessions covering meals per labor hour and staffing plans, procurement, salad bar implementation, menu planning, marketing, onsite culinary, recipe, customer service training, and more. The Chef Ann Foundation works with districts to understand their needs and how they can best be supported in using their KIT Funds to improve and sustain their meal programs.

Implementation Work

Through our growing implementation work, we’ve collaborated with districts on targeted projects. Many school food programs contain opportunities for growth and expansion, and we’re excited to share some of our current work:

Foothills Fresh

In the school food world, rural districts are often overlooked and underserved. Large urban districts commonly receive support from organizations because they reach a large number of students. But rural districts should have access to the same resources and support as large, urban districts. One way of accessing these benefits is by combining the purchasing power of small districts into a unified contract.

Foothills Fresh is a uniquely designed project. In collaboration with Sierra Harvest, we helped nine small, rural school districts in Western Nevada County, California to create a Joint Power of Authority (JPA) in order to leverage buying power and improve food quality. This model can be replicated nationwide, by combining groups of like-minded districts to create a single purchasing entity.

Twin Rivers

Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) is located in the greater Sacramento area and is a large district with over 24,000 students enrolled. We are currently working with TRUSD to help incorporate more scratch-cooked recipes into their menu as well as make overall recipe recommendations. Some of these recommendations were based on feedback from students via surveys. Based on in-depth facilities assessments, we were also able to make equipment and sustainability recommendations unique to this project. These efforts all build to the overall goal of improving kitchen efficiency, increasing participation, and creating more nutritious food for TRUSD students.

Continuing the Momentum

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve learned not only how many families rely on the National School Lunch Program to help feed their children, but also how important school food professionals are in our communities. For many students, the meals they receive at school may be the only access they have to a hot meal or to fresh fruits and vegetables, therefore it’s increasingly important to make those meals as nutritious as possible.

The work and support in the state of California truly is leading the way toward healthier meals for all. We hope that California is setting the new standard for our country in moving towards nutritious meals for all kids in school.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.