School kitchens are transforming to provide higher-quality, healthier meals for kids.

ON THE LUNCH MENU ON A RECENT THURSDAY AT NORTH MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL IN CASTROVILLE ARE A FEW OPTIONS: teriyaki chicken, a crispy chicken sandwich with spicy coleslaw, a chicken cobb salad or a ham and cheese sandwich on ciabatta, all served with a portion of veggies and fruit alongside.

It sounds more like a list of what you might find at a restaurant than a high school cafeteria. That is, if you’re comparing to the days of meatloaf or limp spaghetti, with just one option for all kids. In cafeterias of Salinas City Elementary and Monterey Peninsula Unified school districts, schools offer a salad bar loaded with fresh sliced cucumbers, lettuce, carrots and other vegetables to choose from – representing a different framework than in 1981, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service proposed counting relish or ketchup as a vegetable.

Since Barack Obama’s administration, there has been a switch to providing healthier – and tastier – food in schools. “School food service is the biggest restaurant chain in America. It’s bigger than McDonald’s, bigger than Starbucks,” says Sara Doherty, director of nutrition services and wellness at North Monterey County Unified School District.

Every day, NMCUSD serves an average of 5,500 meals including breakfast, lunch, snacks and supper. Salinas City Elementary School District serves 7,680 meals daily across 14 schools; and Monterey Peninsula Unified School District serves 11,000. (These are just three of Monterey County’s 24 school districts feeding students daily.)

California produces nearly half of the fruits and vegetables nationwide, yet 1 in 5 Californians are food insecure. These numbers are higher among Latino and Black Californians, 27.5 and 28.9 percent, respectively. Monterey County’s population is 60.8-percent Latino. The Salinas Valley is known as the Salad Bowl of the World, yet 40.8 percent of Monterey County residents are food insecure, according to the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment, produced by the four local hospital systems plus the Monterey County Health Department and United Way. Meanwhile, 18.4 percent of Monterey County children ages 0-17 live below the federal poverty level. And 42.7 percent of children ages 5-17 are considered obese or overweight.

All of these issues – poverty, nutrition and health – converge in official thinking about school lunch. Children need a balanced diet to develop their brains and bodies, and good nutrition is linked to academic achievement. According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2019 national youth risk behavior survey, students with higher grades eat breakfast, fruits and vegetables daily.

School cafeterias are becoming an increasingly central place where officials are attempting to solve these problems, by increasing accessibility of meals for free (addressing poverty and access to food) and making meals more nutritious. Across the country, schools are required to serve meals at no charge to children whose household income is at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.

During the 2022-2023 school year, California became the first state to implement a statewide universal meals program for all students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. That means school lunch – as well as breakfast and supper – are now available to all students free of charge, regardless of income.

“It took away the stigma that was generally associated with school meals and eating at school,” says Micha James, MPUSD’s director of nutrition services. MPUSD, like other districts, has reported increased participation at all schools in the district – more kids are eating school lunch.

NMCUSD has offered free meals to all students since the 2018-2019 school year, thanks to a federal program for school districts located in low-income areas (87 percent of students and families at NMCUSD are socio-economically disadvantaged). Once the district shifted to free meals for all, the number of students taking lunch at school at NMCUSD increased by 50 percent.

Of course part of that is price, and part of that is quality. “We recognize that school meals must look and taste good if children are going to eat them,” according to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service.

And there are other considerations. As Carmel Unified School District’s nutrition director, Alexis Supancic, put it in presenting an annual report in October: “We want to get them through the line as fast as possible so they have the time to play, especially the little ones.”

That’s where cafeteria workers, with a limited budget and limited time to serve hundreds of customers, need to get creative.

TEN MINUTES BEFORE LUNCHTIME, students slowly start to line up outside the closed cafeteria door at North Monterey High School. Behind the scenes in the kitchen, staff are quickly assembling meal kits with chicken, green pozole, chips, cabbage and lime for the entree. Meanwhile, other workers organize the cafeteria before it opens so the line can move smoothly and students can grab their meals, fruit and snacks. Once the bell rings, hundreds of students rush into the cafeteria, grabbing ready-to-go meals. (To help with speed during a 30-minute lunch period, there are four other meal distribution points across the high school, including a cart and kiosk.) It looks like an anthill, all moving – the once-silent cafeteria is suddenly full of students chattering and grabbing food and finding a place to eat.

The chicken pozole recipe is special for NMCUSD kitchen employees: It is the result of a collaborative effort. When Chef Stephanie Alias came on board, they revised the recipe and she asked everyone what they liked and how they prepared it at home. “She took all of their feedback, and helped create this kind of shared pozole recipe,” Doherty says.

Since Alias started in 2022, the district has added 35 new items to the menu. Alias is a member of Brigaid, an organization that provides kitchen training and assessments, and places chefs in school districts and helps them improve the quality of food served.

School districts have only so much flexibility: They need to follow strict USDA guidelines including the number of calories per meal (550 to 650 for grades K-9, or 750 to 850 for grades 9-12); percentage of fat (less than 10 percent); and sodium level, from 1,110 to 1,280 milligrams, depending on the age group. At least 80 percent of the grains offered on a weekly basis must be 50 – to 100-percent whole grain, two choices of milk must be offered that are low-fat or fat-free, and fruit and vegetables are required every day. These guidelines started during the 2012-2013 school year and were based on the guidelines from Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science, an organization that studies the U.S. food supply domestically and internationally and creates nutrition guidelines to improve health and provide recommendations to policymakers. At that time, about 17 percent of kids nationwide were obese.

Each school district produces its own recipes and has access to other recipes from nonprofit partners such as Brigaid, or through the U.S. Department of Education or USDA.

For example, if a school district wants to introduce cauliflower fried rice, kitchen staff have two options: develop their own concept from scratch, or look for existing options on the school recipe databases. Of course, they may pick one then adapt it to their students’ preference.

When a district creates a new recipe – chicken pozole, for example – they use menu planning software such as Mosaic or Health-e Pro, which acts like a food calculator. So many ounces each of chicken, hominy, sauces and spices generates the number of calories, sodium, fat, etc. per portion. Cooks then tweak it to make sure they are complying with USDA and state nutrition requirements.

While the cafeteria comes to life in a sudden burst of energy, a lot of work happens behind the scenes that students don’t see. It’s a continuous cycle that starts with buying ingredients, planning menus, estimating how many meals to prepare (accounting for absences, field trips and more), cooking and prepping the food, delivering it, cleaning and starting all over again.

Many school districts use cycle menus, enabling them to buy items in bulk and plan ahead. For example, every Friday at North Monterey High School, you can find a cheese omelet with tots for breakfast. There’s also orange chicken with fried rice twice a month.

Sometimes, the mastermind behind the menus can make little adjustments to indulge students and make something special for a holiday celebration. On Dec. 14, MPUSD schools served chicken Alfredo. “We’re doing chicken Alfredo with broccoli and then as a treat, we’re serving a chocolate chip cranberry homemade cookie,” James said.

Of course, that holiday indulgence had to be entered into Health-e Pro, and the math has to add up. James says to offer this treat, she adjusted the rest of the week to account for the Alfredo sauce, which is higher in fat than other meal options.

EVERY DAY, WORKERS PREPARE BREAKFAST, lunch and supper for students. Some options are prepacked, like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or only need to be reheated. Other dishes are prepared from scratch, such as salads and dressings. Or it could be a combination of both, called fast-scratch cooking, which uses convenient, ready-made ingredients like canned hominy for pozole or premade teriyaki sauce. “We’re moving towards scratch cooking,” says Christina Varela, SCESD’s director of foodservice. Varela adds the school district offers six freshly made meals in a two-week period, incorporating some from-scratch items with things like premade sauces.

At NMCUSD, about 65 percent of entrees are scratch-cooked. Each district, and each campus, works within its facility constraints. At Carmel Unified, for example, there is a lot of assembly (of things like wraps, burritos and sandwiches) more than cooking. “With the facilities and the staff that we have, we can’t fully scratch cook,” Supancic said.

It’s not just from-scratch cooking that is gaining traction, but local ingredients and healthier options. In 2021, NMCUSD received a $97,638 grant for its farm-to-school expansion project to increase locally grown produce in school cafeterias, plus hands-on opportunities for students to learn about nutrition and agriculture. Doherty says the program has allowed the district to purchase higher-quality meat and vegetables from local vendors, including Cream Co. Meats and Coke Farm, a food hub in San Juan Bautista representing over 70 organic growers. SCESD has partnered with the Salinas nonprofit Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), Taylor Farms and Watsonville Coast Produce for ingredients.

School districts also offer meatless options and alternatives for students who have allergies.

SCESD, for example, is a nut-free district and instead of PB&J serves sunbutter, a sunflower seed butter. “There’s so many kids that are allergic to nuts,” Varela says, adding that her own daughter has a nut allergy. (MPUSD doesn’t prepare meals with nuts, but does offer wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.)

At SCESD, there are colorful salad bars where kids from transitional kindergarten to fifth grade can pick and choose which vegetables they want to eat that day. “They can get as much as they want from the salad bar, as long as they don’t waste it,” Varela says.

Jicama and cucumber with low-sodium Tajin, a chili powder seasoning, is a popular item across some districts. (Eating chopped fruit with chili and lime is very common in Mexican culture.) At SCESD, they also serve 2-percent sugar cereals paired with fruits like bananas to add more sweetness without adding more processed sugar.

High sugar intake increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental cavities. Last year USDA announced new nutritional guidelines, including reducing the amount of fat, sugar and salt students consume at school. In NMCUSD, the team has worked to reduce sugar intake by 7 pounds per student per year.

YOU CAN STILL FIND AMERICAN CLASSICS like hot dogs, pizza and peanut butter sandwiches in school cafeterias. But districts are also taking into account cultural preferences for certain foods. In Monterey County, with a majority-Latino population, that means introducing dishes like chicken pozole, conchas (but a whole grain version) or jicama and cucumbers with low-sodium Tajin to some districts’ menus.

“We did a survey of our high school students last year to see what they want, and they wanted more culturally relevant Hispanic food. We quickly shifted,” Doherty says.

At SCESD, a veggie wrap that was recently added has been popular. Varela says it’s very important what the first group of kids think about a dish. “If they see the front of the line likes it, then they’ll try it, [if] they see that they don’t like it all of a sudden no one likes it,” Varela adds, noting their menu is based on students’ recommendations and results of food samples they share with them. “They do love their tamales,” Varela adds. “And we added a baked potato that they can load vegetables on if they want.”

“We do have very strict dietary guidelines that we have to follow. But it doesn’t make it impossible. You just have to be creative,” Doherty says of the North Monterey County menu.

By law, students have to take with them the entire meal, which at lunch includes an entree, fruit, vegetables and milk. And, of course, while districts may be thoughtful about what they serve to create a balanced meal, and kids take a plate that represents nutritional guidelines, there’s no way to require them to eat everything on their plate. CUSD added popular grab-and-go breakfast items like string cheese and boiled eggs to the breakfast menu to boost protein consumption. And salad bars look great, but they’re not for everyone: “The little kids don’t like the salads too much,” Supancic said.

There are fundamental challenges to offering standardized meals and portions. For some kids, especially student-athletes, an entire tray may not be enough calories. For others, it’s too much and leads to a lot of food waste.

MPUSD campuses offer a share tray, where students can place items – whole fruit, snacks or small salads – they don’t want, and others can grab an extra apple or nuts.

Students offer mixed reviews about school meals. “Sometimes it can be unhealthy, but a lot of times there are a lot of good healthy options and the school provides multiple options for us,” says Mary Lamb, 14, a freshman at Marina High School.

Lamb likes the salad bar and chooses the vegetables she likes, such as cucumber, tomatoes and cauliflower. “We have a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables that we put into our salads, and I really enjoy them,” Lamb adds.

Karina Jimenez, 16, a junior at North Monterey County High, grabs an orange chicken with fried rice on Wednesday, Jan. 10. She eats only the chicken and leaves the rice behind, because it is too dry, she says: “Only the chicken actually tastes good.” She finds that portions of some entrees are also too small. The chicken pozole, for example, has too much broth to her liking and little chicken and hominy.

Alexia Almanza, 15, a sophomore at NMHS, is eating a turkey sandwich. Almanza likes the variety of food the school cafeteria offers and notes, “If you don’t like the food that they’re giving [that day], there’s always a salad.” Almanza says tortas and green pozole are favorite lunches, highlighting those are also meals she will eat at home.

Almanza thinks she eats more vegetables and fruits at school and hopes the kitchen will offer acai bowls with granola for breakfast.

At Monterey High School, the main entree on Friday, Jan. 5 is pizza – either cheese, veggie or pepperoni. Sides are apples or bananas and the salad bar or mini kale salads. (There are also some vegetarian and non-vegetarian salads as alternative entrees.)

Andrew McDowell, 16, a junior and student-athlete, says meal portions are enough. But he thinks quality is declining – he remembers a bowl with eggs and potatoes he used to like. Some of his favorite school lunches are wings or popcorn chicken. And some sweets have simply gone away, which might be good for nutrition guidelines, but it’s not met with positive reviews from students. McDowell adds, “We used to have cookies and that disappeared.”