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Nutrition director: 45% scratch cooking, local sourcing and $4M in kitchen upgrades
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Summary
Nutrition director Jenny Lee told the board the district now prepares about 45% of meals from scratch, serves roughly 13,000 pounds of fresh produce weekly, expanded a Fresh Fruit & Vegetable program to seven schools and invested about $4 million in kitchen modernization over three years.
Jenny Lee, the district’s director of nutrition services, told the El Monte City School District Board that the district has expanded scratch‑cooking and local procurement while modernizing kitchens to support freshly prepared meals.
Lee said breakfast participation is about 72% (state average cited as 30–40%) and lunch participation about 84% (state average 50–60%). She said the district prepares roughly 45% of meals from scratch and that students consume “over 13,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables a week.” Lee described a $70,000 incentive that helped expand a Fresh Fruit & Vegetable program to seven schools and fund tastings and culinary lessons, and she said the district has applied for additional grants to continue the work.
Lee also reviewed kitchen modernization investments: "Over the past 3 years, we have spent, and reinvested about $4,000,000 in modernizing our kitchens," she said, noting about 150 pieces of equipment have been replaced and four full kitchen modernizations are complete with four more planned by 2027. The presentation highlighted partnership efforts (Farm to School incubator grant, Tanaka Farms visits) and local sourcing goals (produce within ~200 miles when possible).
The director asked the board and community to join School Nutrition Day on May 1 to celebrate the department’s staff and invited board members to tour the central kitchen. Lee announced this will be her last school year and the board thanked her for her service.
