Yes, chef! Here’s how a $3 million investment in school meals will work in Fresno
Fresno Unified is bringing on 10 chefs to help meet students’ and families’ overwhelming demands for better food.
That includes nine executive chefs contracted through the company Brigaid out of Connecticut, the district’s Nutrition Services director Amanda Harvey confirmed for The Bee’s Education Lab.
The three-year agreement with Brigaid, which also includes a one-time fee of $85,000 for an initial assessment in the 2022-23 school year, will cost the district just under $3.7 million. The FUSD school board unanimously approved the contract during Wednesday’s regular meeting.
“We have heard, resoundingly, from our engagement through LCAP (the Local Control and Accountability Plan),” said Board President Veva Islas before the board’s vote, “our school meals is really an area where there is a demand for a lot of improvement. And this is an action that we as a district are taking in order to help resolve that.”
Students can expect to see changes to their meals beginning next school year, with the district’s three-year contract with Brigaid set to start in July 2023.
Seven of the contracted chefs will be assigned to each of the district’s comprehensive high schools. The remaining two will be headquartered at the Nutrition Center, where most of the district’s food is prepared.
The nine-person team will assess the district’s current operations and craft a plan for improvements.
The 10th chef will be hired by the district rather than the outside vendor and will focus on training the district’s food service workers and collaborating with the district’s nutritionist to optimize food operations – from designing recipes to reviewing food delivery procedures. That person will receive a yearly base salary of roughly $85,000.
According to a job description trustees approved Wednesday night, that person’s duties will include:
Developing a scratch cooking program utilizing fresh ingredients.
Crafting recipes and menus that reflect “a diverse population of student taste preferences.”
Traveling to school sites and overseeing kitchen work production and quality assurance of food taste and presentation.
Soliciting feedback from students on recipe and menu development.
Another task for the executive chef will be to “interpret and apply” U.S. Department of Agriculture rules and regulations to Fresno Unified’s nutritional offerings.
That process became slightly more complicated after the Biden administration released updated nutritional guidelines on school meals earlier this month, cracking down on sodium and added sugars.
The new restrictions, which aim to tackle the increasing rates of childhood obesity, will be rolled out over the next few years.
The district didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the updated guidelines Wednesday afternoon.
Fresno Unified’s multimillion-dollar investment in new culinary personnel comes after ongoing complaints from parents and students about both the quality of food and the level of food waste in the district.
Last month, the district hosted a board workshop on nutrition, where staff announced plans to bring on the executive chefs, and parents voiced concerns about their children being served partially frozen meals.
This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 11:06 AM.
