Author: fentonadmin

Every year, U.S. schools produce as much as 530,000 tons of food waste. That includes everything from uneaten food to packaging, disposable plates and utensils, and more. The financial cost of that waste is more than $1.7 billion annually. Addressing it could have a major impact on the environment and on the millions of families who struggle with food insecurity.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. Throughout California, School Food Professionals and their districts are leading the charge towards a “zero-waste” future. This Earth Day, we’re saluting the passionate, innovative and committed professionals who are working to eliminate school food waste, and we’re uplifting simple steps that any school or district can take to make their programs more sustainable.

Review: To eliminate food waste, the first step is to understand where it comes from and what causes it. Conducting an audit of food waste can give a better sense of how much food a program throws out and what kinds are most often wasted. When Upland High School in San Bernardino County audited their food waste, they discovered they were generating more than 350 pounds during a single lunch period. Two-thirds of that total was food waste, including more than 200 whole fruits and 40 unopened milk cartons. This understanding gave them the ability to pinpoint where they could make changes to minimize waste in the future.

Reduce: The most effective way to cut down on wasted food and packaging is not to have it go to waste in the first place. More than 60 percent of municipal waste is packaging, and the environmental impact it creates is enormous. Scratch cooking, rather than serving prepackaged items, goes a long way towards minimizing packaging and food waste. For example, offering fresh-cut fruits and vegetables not only eliminates packaging waste, but is shown to increase the amount of fruit eaten and decrease food waste on a school level, resulting in healthier kids and a healthier planet. Transitioning to bulk milk dispensers, rather than using individual cartons, has also been found to reduce packaging waste while improving overall milk consumption, all while lowering cost to schools.   

Recover: When food goes uneaten, it doesn’t have to go to waste. Many schools throughout California have launched programs to get food that might otherwise go unused to students or community members who need it. Thomas Jefferson High and many other Los Angeles Unified School District schools have designated tables where students and teachers can return unopened and unconsumed items. Students who want additional food are free to take it, and at the end of the day, everything remaining can be donated. Hundreds of school districts throughout California, such as Irvine Unified and Alhambra Unified, also partner with food banks and local nonprofits to recover and redistribute surplus food. 

Recycle: Recycling and composting programs enable schools and districts in every corner of the state to give new life to unused food and packaging and reduce their carbon footprints. For example, schools from across Marin County partner with Zero Waste Marin to compost and recycle food and packaging waste. In southern California, Burbank’s Bret Harte Elementary has introduced a high-tech system that can turn 100 lbs of food waste into 20 lbs of high-nutrient compost that can be used in fertilizer, animal feeds and many other ways.

Everyone wins when we minimize food waste. Schools and districts save money, fewer people and communities experience food insecurity, and the impact on the environment is reduced. We’re inspired by the way that School Food Professionals and districts are working together to create a more sustainable future for all.

Great things are cooking in California’s school kitchens. In every corner of the state, from San Diego to San Francisco and from the Klamath River to the Hollywood Hills, School Food Professionals are tapping into their skills and creativity to make our kids’ meals fresher, healthier and tastier.

On Wednesday, the Powered by School Food Professionals Awards gathered school food teams from across California at Jar Restaurant in Los Angeles to celebrate this vital work. Dozens of districts throughout the state submitted their best dishes for consideration, uplifting creative new recipes and exciting takes on student favorites. Using farm-fresh ingredients and scratch cooking techniques and tapping into the rich cultures of their students, communities and staff, they’re creating mouthwatering meals that are as good as they are good for you. 

Supported by the Chef Ann Foundation, the Awards celebrated the incredible impact of School Food Professionals and the way they’re transforming school food in California. Los Angeles culinary legend Chef Suzanne Tracht recreated all the winning recipes for a tasting menu experience, demonstrating just how good school food can look and taste. 

Without further ado, meet the winners of the Powered by School Food Professionals Awards.

Best Original Recipe: San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s Thai Basil Lentil Burger (San Luis Obispo, CA)

Originally created for a virtual student cooking class during the pandemic, San Luis Coastal’s Thai Basil Lentil Burger is a healthy, delicious taste of the community they serve. The dish captures the creativity and deep culinary expertise of their school food team, which is led by a Le Cordon Bleu Pastry Chef and a professional restaurant chef. The whole-grain bun and organic red lentils are sourced locally as part of their farm-to-school program, ensuring each bite of the dish supports student health and the community. 

Best Scratch-Cooked Adaptation: Azusa Unified School District’s Chicken Wings (Azusa, CA)

When it’s wing day at Azusa Unified School District, you’d better act fast, because they go flying out the door. Azusa Unified supercharged their chicken-wing game by serving scratch-made, locally sourced organic wings coated with different sauces to match their students’ diverse tastes. Rather than deep frying, Azusa’s school food team oven-bakes the wings to achieve a satisfying crunch without compromising on health. This succulent and spicy recipe was created by trained chefs on the district’s school food team, and they are proud to be the first district in the San Gabriel Valley to serve organic chicken and beef raised using regenerative farming methods. 

Best Take on a Culinary Trend: Upland Unified School District’s Vegan Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Bar (Upland, CA) 

If you don’t think breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you haven’t tried Upland Unified School District’s Vegan Lemon Blueberry Breakfast Bars. Originally developed as the district was looking to incorporate their own student-cultivated, garden-grown lemons into the menu, the scratch-cooked bars give kids the flavors they love and the nutrients they need to succeed throughout the day. They were created in partnership with a plant-based recipe developer who has helped expose Upland Unified students to vegan creations like breakfast breads, tofu- and chickpea-based smoothie bowls and more.

Best Farm to School Recipe: Nevada City School of the Arts’ Whole Wheat Penne Pasta (Nevada City, CA)

Great things are sprouting up in Nevada City. The school food team at Nevada City School of the Arts developed this tasty and nourishing whole wheat pasta recipe to use surplus harvest items from their farm partners. It’s exploding with fresh veggies and other healthy products direct from local producers, including arugula, eggplant, fennel, tomatoes, basil and olive oil. Created by Nevada City School of the Arts’ Food Service Director and their Student Engagement Coordinator (both trained chefs with extensive experience), the dish is a portrait of what delicious, local, farm-fresh and community-minded school food can be. 

Best Culturally Relevant Recipe: San Diego Unified School District’s Birria (San Diego, CA)

The School Food Professionals at San Diego Unified School District bring all their passion and culture to the table. During lunchtime taste tests, they heard loud and clear that their students wanted to see Birria on the menu. The smoky, spicy, long-simmered Mexican stew is a taste of home not just for the students – more than half of whom are Latino – but for many of the staff as well. Using a recipe lovingly crafted by the district’s experienced culinary specialist, they have their students – and teachers – asking for seconds whenever they serve this delicious comfort food.

Community Choice Recipe: Marysville Joint Unified School District’s Kickin’ Kiwi Chicken Chili Verde (Marysville, CA)

Thousands of Marysville students can’t be wrong. Since introducing their Kickin’ Kiwi Chicken Chili to the menu, Marysville Joint Unified School District’s school food team has prepared and served almost 5,000 portions of this creative new dish. Their Community-Choice-winning recipe, which was voted on by students, parents, staff and school food advocates throughout California, taps into southwestern flavors and cooking methods that their students and School Food Professionals both love, and it’s packed with fresh, scratch-cooked ingredients. The kiwis are even sourced from a local farm that has a long-standing partnership with the district.

The afternoon was filled with food, fun and fellowship, as representatives of some of California’s best school food teams shared countless stories about the steps they’re taking to transform the meals they make throughout the state – using farm-fresh ingredients and scratch cooking techniques to chart a new future for school food. Most of all, they shared a commitment to California’s kids and to building healthier, happier and more successful futures, one tray at a time.  

I call the school food team at Fallbrook Union High School District my amazing dream team. Every one of them cares so deeply, and they’re fearless. There’s not an idea that you can throw at them that they’re not willing to try. 

Our School Food Professionals learned a lot of their skills right here. Our team member Veronica Bernal is a great example. She’s an excellent cook at home, but at home, you don’t often have to make 400 of the same dish while meeting a whole list of nutritional regulations. She learned that on the job. 

There was a point where our program felt like it was hitting a wall. We were using a lot of home recipes and what I call “Chef Pinterest,” going online and asking “What can we make?” We could read recipes and buy ingredients, and we were managing to do pretty well, but we knew there was so much more we could do if we had the skills. So last summer, we decided that the team needed more training. 

Sometimes people confuse talent and technique. Talent is when you just naturally have the skills they need. It’s a very unusual, one-in-a-million thing. Technique, on the other hand, is taught. If you want to get really good, you need someone to look at what you’re doing and say “I see a spot where we can teach you.” 

We’re committed to staff development. For example, we built our team’s techniques by bringing in a couple of chefs for hands-on training. They taught our staff about everything from braising, overnight roasting and grinding meats to making house-made sauces, prepping more efficiently and much more. We had a master baker come in and lead our staff through immersive baking training on topics like grinding grains, understanding baking percentages, using different types of yeast, proofing and others. Chefs from the Chef Ann Foundation worked with us on a number of techniques for blending, brining and making dressings

That training transformed our program, increasing not just the skills our staff bring to the table but their confidence as well. Our team members saw that they really can do this work. And by putting that time and effort into training them, we also showed them how valued they are in their jobs.  

One program that has made a huge difference is the Chef Ann Foundation’s Healthy School Food Pathway program, which helps School Food Professionals learn the skills they need to succeed in scratch cooking, whether they’re aspiring, beginners, or experienced in the field. Before it came into being, there wasn’t any solid, structured pathway to help people move up in this industry. But the program opens people’s eyes in terms of what they can do, and it gives them the knowledge and the assistance they need to get there, covering subjects like scratch cooking, menu development, recipe creation, nutrition, regulations and compliance, procurement, inventory management and more.

More than half of our team have completed the pre-apprenticeship program, with another five team members starting it in March. About a third of us have continued on to participate in the nine-month apprenticeship program. 

Learning is a process. My team takes the attitude that everyone is going to fail at some point along the way. That’s just how people grow. But if we learn from it, pick up and keep moving forward, we’ll keep getting better and better. A lot of businesses teach people what they need to know to accomplish their job, but they don’t always give them the background. Understanding that “why” makes a huge difference. Look at the regulations we follow – of course, it’s important for staff to know what they are, but they also need to know why they exist in the first place. 

You never stop learning. I’ve been doing this work for a long time, but every time I go to one of these trainings, I still find myself saying, “I never knew that before.” No matter who you are or how much experience you have, whether you’re a pre-apprentice or a master chef, there’s always a new skill or information that you can learn. 

In my last district, I was incredibly fortunate to have a director who mentored me, sent me to trainings and really helped me understand this work. I wouldn’t be where I am without her. When she left, she asked me to make sure to do that for other people. 

If you’re considering working in school food, let me tell you – it’s the best career ever. If you love working with kids, want the ability to make a lasting impact on their lives and are ready to learn, it’s the perfect job for you.

Any parent can tell you that it can be a struggle getting kids to try new foods. But helping them overcome this issue has many benefits. Studies show that kids who are exposed to diverse foods and flavors early are more likely to try new foods throughout their lives. And incorporating a diverse diet has many long-term health benefits, such as improved nutrition, longer lifespans, reduced risk of metabolic syndrome and healthier gut bacteria.

So what’s a parent to do? How do you get your child to trade in their familiar go-to dishes and try new foods? We asked the experts — two School Food Professionals who work every day to help students expand their palates and develop lifelong healthy eating habits. Here are their tips on how to turn picky eaters into brave food explorers.

• Meet them where they are: The healthiest meal in the world won’t benefit your child if it stays on their plate. So when trying to get your child to try new flavors, don’t push them too far out of their comfort zone. “You have to keep in mind that these are younger kids who might be nervous about trying something different,” said Tanya Montes, Central Kitchen Lead at Cypress School District. “For example, we dial back the heat and spice when we make salsa. That way the kids can taste the flavor profile, but it’s not going to scare them off.”

• Get creative: What do you do if your kids are scared they won’t like a new type of food? Try filling it with flavors you already know they love. Incorporating your child’s favorite flavors can give them the boost they need to try something different and possibly discover a new favorite. “When just 10 kids out of 550 tried our hummus recipe, we figured we needed a new direction,” said Parisa Shukla, Director of Child Nutrition at Cypress School District. “So we thought, ‘Why not make a dessert hummus?’” Her team kept the same healthy hummus and added a bit of chocolate and vanilla flavors that they know their students love. “The kids ended up really, really liking it,” Shukla said.

• Bring the influencers on board: When kids see their friends trying something different, they’re more likely to want to try it themselves. “School gives you a free space where you see other kids eat a new dish and you’re like, ‘Maybe I’ll give that a shot,’” Montes said. The benefits aren’t just one way, either. Incorporating diverse food choices also makes a huge difference for the kids who are seeing their cultures represented. “I’m half-Afghan, and I never saw the kinds of foods my family ate at school,” said Shukla. “When kids see dishes from their culture on the menu, it helps to normalize them, they don’t feel shy or embarrassed when they’re bringing these things from home.”

• Don’t give up: If your child just won’t eat new food, don’t get discouraged. Depending on the child, it can take more than a dozen exposures to a new dish before they are willing to try it. Once they do, they may still find it’s not to their taste, or they may discover a new favorite. “The first time we served tikka masala, a lot of our students were really unsure about it. But now a lot of them walk in and say, ‘Great! It’s tikka masala day,’” Shukla said. “And if they decided that it’s not a food they like, that’s OK, too. They can have yogurt and scratch-made granola instead.”

Everyone’s tastes are different, and not every child is going to like every food. But by being willing to try new dishes, kids open themselves up, not just to a healthier future, but to a lifetime of delicious discoveries, connections with friends and culinary cultural experiences.

Delicious and healthy school meals don’t make themselves. They are planned, cooked and served by a team of School Food Professionals with diverse skills, roles and backgrounds, as well as a shared commitment to helping students succeed in the classroom and beyond.  

School Food Professionals bring skill, care and creativity to the nearly 3 million lunches served across California each day. While the “lunch lady” is a familiar image, School Food Professionals work at every level to make sure our kids get the good and good-for-you meals they need to do and be their best. Members of the school food team are involved at every stage of the process, from menu planning and sourcing ingredients to creating new recipes, cooking meals, serving kids, educating students on food choices and much, much more. 

Jobs and titles vary from school to school and district to district, but here are some of the key roles on a school food team:

Food Service Director: The people who oversee school food programs at the district or school-site levels go by many names — Nutrition Supervisor, Executive Director and others. Along with leading the charge to transform school food in California, they build, train and supervise school food teams; ensuring they’re complying with all state and federal requirements, keeping the department on budget; purchasing equipment and ensuring it is maintained; tracking and reporting meal counts and more. 

Registered Dietitian / Nutritionist: If you want expert advice on school nutrition, menu planning and healthy eating, talk to your local school district’s Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN). RDNs work in a number of roles with schools, helping guide them in meeting nutrition requirements and making healthy food choices. RDNs come to the work with extensive training — including earning a master’s degree in a related field, completing at least 1,000 hours of supervised practice and passing a national exam through the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.  

Head Chef: School food chefs work at the intersection of art and science. They use their creativity and vast experience — many have worked years in restaurants and other professional kitchens — to devise new recipes that are exciting, healthy and bursting with flavor. Then they take those recipes and work out how to make them at scale for all the students in their school or district. Along the way, they work to source the best ingredients, often working with local producers as part of a farm to school program to make sure the kids they serve get meals made with the freshest possible produce and protein. Finally, they train the members of their staff so that they can make these creative new dishes consistently from meal to meal or school site to school site.

School Food Service Employees: Just like a busy restaurant, a school cafeteria requires many different skills and people to make it run. You might think of these staff as the lunch ladies, but they include all the people who make it possible to cook and serve meals to students, from the cooks who make sure that recipes are executed perfectly to the cafeteria staff who prepare ingredients, maintain equipment, provide kitchen support, serve food to students, wash and sanitize dishes and kitchen tools and more. These staff are also the face of school food, interacting directly with students, offering guidance on meal choices and creating a friendly environment where kids can relax and recharge before going back to class. 

There are many more people involved with creating delicious and nutritious school food, such as warehouse and facility workers, delivery drivers, administrative staff, bookkeepers and others. But whatever their title, whether they work in the kitchen or cafeteria or somewhere else, they are School Food Professionals, and they play critical roles in helping our children build healthy, thriving and successful futures.