School food leaders visit BVSD through Chef Ann Foundation fellowshi…

With California moving to universal school lunches this year and providing more support for purchasing local food, Christina Lawson is working on moving her small school district north of Sacramento to a scratch cooking program.

She’s also getting some extra help through a new fellowship created by the Chef Ann Foundation, which was founded by former Boulder Valley food services director Ann Cooper

“It’s a perfect opportunity to make sure we’re setting ourselves up for success,” Lawson said.

She joined three other fellows for a visit this week to see Boulder Valley’s central kitchen, greenhouse and school lunches in action.

“Scratch cooking is a little scary,” she said. “I’m looking for the best practices with getting kids to buy in. And it needs to be sustainable. I want to make small, gradual changes. There’s a lot to glean from what they’re doing here.”

She added one of her biggest takeaways has been Boulder Valley’s “fearlessness in just going for it.”

Along with the four fellows visiting Boulder Valley, another 20 fellows are visiting districts in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia. Included in that group is Boulder Valley kitchen manager Barbara Macleod, who is visiting California.

Mara Fleishman, chief executive officer of the Chef Ann Foundation, came up with the idea for the yearlong Healthy School Food Pathway Fellowship program, which welcomed this first group in January. The program is funded by the Whole Kids Foundation and the state of California, with the state covering the 12 California fellows.

Fleishman said the goal is helping mid-level school food service employees think differently about their jobs by considering how school food contributes to sustainable food systems, better nutrition and a lifelong healthy eating habits.

“I want to help them build knowledge,” she said.

Fleishman said the program is hands on and covers all aspects of making a locally sourced, scratch cooked program work, including finance, procurement, leadership, facilities and recipe development. The program also includes lessons on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Along with visiting model school districts, the fellows participate in weekly live learning sessions, visit the Culinary Institute for Child Nutrition, earn credit toward a certificate from the UCLA Food Studies program, and build a network of supportive peers. They also receive $5,000 to pilot a project in their own school districts.

“The fellows can solve real time issues in their school districts,” she said. “It’s very cool.”

Shana Cash, the acting food services director for three charter high schools affiliated with Purdue University in Indiana, said her goal is to move away from providing food through an outside company and start their own lunch program.

“It’s been amazing to learn from people who have walked this path,” she said. “It really matters. It’s really foundational to get the food right. If you’re hungry or just ate doughnuts, you may be disruptive in class later. We want consistent, high quality meals.”

Boulder Valley’s program, she added, “is really remarkable.”

“The fellowship is a really great opportunity to network and learn from other people what’s working,” she said. “We have experts who can tell us, “This is where you can start.’”

Richie Wilim, culinary manager at California’s Vacaville Unified School District, said it’s almost “too easy” to depend on processed, prepackaged food for school lunches.

“Fresh, local food is so much better for the students,” he said.

While his district does “as much scratch based cooking as we can,” he said, he’s always looking for ways to improve.

“We have our own challenges,” he said. “A big focus is helping the staff at our school sites become more comfortable and confident with cooking. Before, they just had to heat it up to a safe temperature and put it out.”

He said seeing the scale of Boulder Valley’s scratch cooking operation was helpful, as was learning more about how the district develops and tests recipes. His district enrolls about 12,500 students, while Boulder Valley’s enrollment is about 28,000 students.

“Everything is a learning opportunity,” he said.