Chef Ann Foundation

Meet Mike! Mike grew up in Los Gatos, California, within the Bay Area. After finishing high school, he spent five years at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, where he completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition. Following his college years, Mike returned to the Bay Area during the dot-com era and secured an entry-level position in the computer industry. Impressively, he worked his way up to project manager at a hardware engineering company in less than two years. After the market crashed, Mike shifted his career path toward his passion for Food Service Management. He dedicated 15 years to supervising and directing government-regulated kitchens in nursing homes. In 2018, Mike embraced an opportunity within the school system and finds it fulfilling. He continues to learn every day and looks forward to the opportunity working with our organization. Be sure to tune in next Friday to learn more about the Healthy School Food Pathway program and the other 2024 fellows.

It takes a special set of skills to be a School Food Professional. Cooking meals from scratch for thousands of students each day requires in-depth knowledge of menu planning, ingredient sourcing, kitchen management, a wide range of food preparation techniques, knife skills and more. This National Culinary Arts Month, we’re celebrating all the California School Food Professionals who are using their culinary expertise to cook up better school food for students across the state. Learn more about how School Food Professionals are cooking for change: www.schoolfoodpros.org

Learn how to implement more sustainable practices in your school meal program! 🥗 In our online course, Sustainable Lunchrooms, we discuss tactics for limiting the environmental impact of school food-service operations, through the lens of scratch cooking. We explore: 🥬 How to minimize food and packaging waste in front and back of house 🥬 Use recipes and menu planning to decrease food waste 🥬 Limit the use of toxic cleaning chemicals 🥬 Procure healthy and sustainable ingredients that minimize the impact on the environment. To learn more and register, visit: https://ow.ly/hIRw50Sk62Q

We are on the second stop of our PLANTS grantees tour. After visiting the GULF OF MAINE INSTITUTE, INC, we are traveling over 4,600 miles to another place where seafood is central to the culture. With an acutely abbreviated growing season, nearly 95% of Anchorage, Alaska’s food supply is barged in twice a week. Creating a unified local supply chain is critical for community resilience, making this project especially significant for the local food system. Anchorage School District serves about 30,000 meals a day to their 84 schools sprawled across 2,000 square miles. Teaming up with Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Alaska Food Co., and Copper River Seafood, they’re set to revolutionize local food procurement and production by: expanding their scratch cooking operations, upgrade cooking equipment, increase local sourcing to 15%, educate students about the local food system, and host listening sessions with local historically underserved producers and fisherfolk. “We’re looking forward to creating strong relationships with community partners, developing a pipeline from the grower to the consumer, improving our staff culinary skills, and increasing agricultural education. We see this grant as a critical step in aligning the cafeteria, the community, and the classroom,” said Marci McGill, Senior Director of Student Nutrition at Anchorage School District. Learn more about this project and others on our website. This program is funded by the USDA Food & Nutrition Service Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative and is administered by the Chef Ann Foundation in partnership with Kitchen Sync Strategies Collaborative, Center for Nutrition & Health Impact (formerly Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition), and National Farm to School Network. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

It's great to be able to start the Healthy School Food Pathway workforce program in CO, ensuring we have the capacity and skill sets needed to drive change in our school food programs. Thank you to Kaiser Permanente for recognizing that change requires a strong workforce in school food. Chef Ann Foundation @https://lnkd.in/gDX-T8tG

Exciting news from Delaware! The House passed H.B. 125 to provide free school meals for students who qualify for reduced-priced meals. The bill now heads to the Senate. To learn more, visit: https://ow.ly/1GRQ50SzRZa

Implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in school food service operations is crucial for consistency and efficiency, no matter the size of of your school food program. They streamline processes, enhance performance, and overall improve efficiency. SOPs provide structured frameworks to maintain specific service operations and prevent food-borne illnesses and contamination. The Chef Ann Foundation offers 15 free downloadable resources (in English and Spanish) on The Lunch Box for school food professionals looking to enhance their skills. Check them out here: https://ow.ly/qbPS50SALym

We are honored to have recently hosted several Chef Ann Foundation fellows at our KIPP Texas-Austin schools to learn how scratch cooking can be implemented in their programs! 🥗🍽️ Check out the video below to see the delicious meals they created and how KIPP Texas crafts nutritionally balanced dishes that fuel academic success and foster lifelong healthy habits. 🌟👩🎓 📚

Tell Congress hungry children can’t wait! We’ve joined the National Healthy School Meals for All Coalition to urge Congress to offer school meals to students nationwide at no cost. At the Chef Ann Foundation, we believe that all children should have equal access to fresh, healthy, delicious food providing them the foundation to thrive and meet their true potential. Healthy food has the power to change children’s lives. Learn more about the coalition and read our full statement: https://ow.ly/6uxf50P910j

We are thrilled to announce that we are recruiting for the position of Senior Human Resources Coordinator! If you have a passion for childhood wellness and are interested in being part of a dynamic team, please take a look at the details and submit your application here: https://ow.ly/ac6t50SzPJq