1. What has been your biggest challenge in food service due to the COVID pandemic?

I would say the overall logistics of operating during the pandemic and the now transition to serving to students in the classroom along with operating our drive thru meal service simultaneously.

2. How have you adapted and overcome these challenges?

Luckily, we purchased our classroom meal service equipment (insulated bags, transport carts, ice packs & heating packs) in the summer of 2020, when we didn’t know how we were starting the school year. While we didn’t start the school year off with students on campus, we were able to utilize the insulated bags for our bus meal deliveries and then had the equipment needed to transition to classroom meal service once students started coming back in January.

3. How have you continued to include local produce into your school meals?

We were fortunate enough to approved for the USDA Unprocessed Fresh Fruits & Vegetables Pilot Program at the beginning of 2020. With this program we were able to allocate $40,000 of our entitlement dollars towards purchasing local produce through approved vendors. This helped our budget out tremendously because of our transition to purchasing mostly IW fruits & vegetables.

4. What are you most proud of?

I’m proud of my staff and their resilience. They have taken this whole pandemic in stride and continue to persevere all of the changes that come their way. They truly are school lunch heroes and it’s been an honor riding out this pandemic with them on the front line.

5. What advice do have for other Food Service Directors?

Listen to your staff. They have become experts in what works and what doesn’t throughout this pandemic. When assembling bulk meals and 500+ grab & go meals daily, time becomes their biggest challenge, so having a well balanced menu of IW & fresh items makes all the difference.

1. What has been your biggest challenge in food service due to the COVID pandemic?

The biggest challenge in food service due to the COVID pandemic was learning how to be reactive instead of proactive. With a few established relationships, a new staff and District, my career path as a Food Service Director began just 17 days before the pandemic. My team and I had to problem solve-collaboratively and reinvent the District’s meal service in the face of the crisis. Currently, we provide curbside meal service on Wednesday’s from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM at Pitman High School, Turlock High School, Dutcher Middle School, and Wakefield Elementary. Weekend meals are included at Wednesday meal pick-ups. TUSD is committed to ensure all children in need had access to “Real Fresh” meals and support local farmers through it all. Our current motto is “Coronavirus, giant hornets, wildfires, ashes, wind, and rain… nothing stops TUSD Child Nutrition.”

2. How have you adapted and overcome these challenges?

TUSD meal service has adapted and overcome these challenges by closely following CDE’s child nutrition waivers and CDC’s regulations. We strive to keep Turlock students engaged, children fed, and the community safe. District-issued student ID’s and/or meal cards are required at weekly meal pick-ups to maintain Child Nutrition Program Integrity. Meals are prepared and assembled prior to curbside meal service to guarantee quality, “Real Fresh,” reimbursable meals. Face masks and social distancing protocols are enforced to protect the health of staff and families. Most important of all, we continue to love our job and do what we do best which is to serve Turlock.

3. How have you continued to include local produce into your school meals?

TUSD Child Nutrition focused on maintaining its partnerships with local farmers during the COVID pandemic. We continued to purchase tangerines from CSU Stanislaus, oranges from a local farmer named Mark, and peaches and plums from TUSD farm. All produce was included into our school meals. I kept trying to think “inside” the box and “put myself in others shoes.”  As a parent, I realized that children are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if we prepare it for them. TUSD produce boxes were created with the help of joining forces with Jana and Rob Nairn at AgLink, local produce growers who support the farm to school network. Utilizing Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot Program funds, we incorporate different produce in a box to provide variety and meet vegetable subgroups of a reimbursable meal. The TUSD produce boxes have been such a huge success that we have seen an increase in meal participation of upward of 200 meals per meal sites.

4. What are you most proud of?

I am so proud of my TUSD Child Nutrition & Warehouse team! Did I mention that I was able to orchestrate distribution of the very first USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program on the West Coast? I’m so thankful to have this opportunity to work with incredibly dedicated and hardworking individuals who did their best to ensure I had a smooth transition as a new director. My team continues to provide great support and willingness to take all ideas related to COVID-19 meal service and make it happen. It nice to have a great team and leadership contributing to all of our successes (especially being the 1^st on the west coast to distribute USDA Farmers to Families Food boxes!).

5. What advice do have for other Food Service Directors?

“We don’t grow when things are easy. We grow when we face challenges.” Workplace morale starts from leadership. Continue to grow and be positive through the challenges. The 2020-21 school year has certainly been different for all of us. Make a vow to connect with your staff and families on a regular, consistent basis in order to assess the effectiveness of your child nutrition program. Strive to ensure student nutrition needs are being met and families have what they need to be connected and successful.

See image attached of our staff!

Left – Right photo: Richelle Salas, Bridget White, Jason Brower, Michael Souza, Terah Brasher, Jennifer Lew-Vang (Director), and Cathy Ford (Kitchen Manager).