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Food-service director: district served more than 1.1 million lunches and expanded student taste‑test programs
Summary
The district's food-service director reported increases in breakfast and lunch counts after universal free meals were introduced, described student engagement events such as Flavor Fest and roving chefs, and urged increased participation to sustain funding for kitchen equipment upgrades.
The district's food-service director reported on meal participation and outreach programs at the SHAC meeting, saying the district served roughly 1.1 million lunches this past year and reported an increase in breakfasts.
The director said breakfast participation was presented in the meeting materials as about 518,193 in a prior year and about 525,793 in the most recent year; transcript lines in one spot were garbled during the presentation, and the director provided these figures in context of year-to-year changes. "We did increase our meals in '23, '24 by 44,000 breakfasts," the director said, and noted more modest increases the following year.
The director explained the program's student engagement work: in-district "roving chef" cooking classes, farmer's-market events that introduce students to new fruits and vegetables, and a Flavor Fest where middle- and high-school students taste and vote on menu items that influence next-year menus. "The more kids we feed, the more funding that we receive," the food-service director said, linking higher participation to increased reimbursements that paid for new kitchen equipment across nearly all campuses.
Staff reminded parents and teachers that students carrying lunchboxes may still take a school meal tray and that second-chance breakfast options help reach students who arrive late. The director said the department serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at different times and encouraged partnership with teachers and principals when hosting student events.
The director offered business cards for schools that want to book chef-led events and said roving-chef classes typically include up to 10 students selected by principals.
