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Lawndale school nutrition team highlights central kitchen, new recipes and rising meal counts
Summary
The district’s Nutrition & Wellness director presented a push for more scratch cooking through a small central kitchen, staff apprenticeship training and new farm partnerships; she reported roughly 922,000 meals in 2023‑24 and about 983,000 in 2024‑25 and said some federal CalFresh shelter funding was recently cut.
Lizette Rooney, the district’s director of Nutrition & Wellness, told the Lawndale Elementary School District board that the nutrition team has been building a small central (scratch) kitchen, training staff through apprenticeship and pre‑apprenticeship programs, and testing new menus to increase both quality and participation.
Rooney said the central kitchen staff—including production chef Sandra Orozco—are developing scratch items such as apple‑cinnamon bread, cinnamon‑swirl pancakes and classroom‑tested recipes that students prefer. She described partnerships with local farms and suppliers (Lopez Family…
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