FOOD LEADERS VISIT BVSD
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.