School Meals Matter Blog

School Nutrition is a busy world. Email may not feel like a priority, but in today’s workplace, people form opinions based on what they experience—whether messages are acknowledged, how long they wait, and whether work moves forward or stalls. With less face-to-face and phone communication, the usual cues of body language and tone of voice are often missing. When that happens, the brain fills in the gaps and sometimes assumes the worst. How you handle your email says a lot a

Any conversation about higher wages has to start with the budget. Raises don’t happen just because the work is hard. They happen when the program can afford them. In school nutrition, strong budgets are built through strong participation—and participation is driven by professional decisions made every day. School nutrition is not simple. Every decision has a financial impact. What’s on the menu affects whether students choose the meal. How students are treated affects whether

The holidays bring excitement, special events, and moments of joy—but they also bring stress. Routines change, classrooms feel different, and emotions run higher for both students and staff. Some students carry worries we never see, and many struggle with the unpredictability this season brings. In the middle of all that, the cafeteria becomes one of the most steady, comforting places in their day. That’s why the holiday season is a time when school nutrition teams should do

Most of the spending decisions in a School Nutrition program don’t happen in the office, they happen in the kitchen. The choices made in the kitchen and on the line each day determine whether the program stays on budget, meets USDA requirements, and delivers the healthy, age-appropriate meals students depend on. Portion control may seem like a small task, but it connects everything—from costs to compliance to the trust families place in the menu. It is one of the most importa

Imagine if every kitchen in your district ran like a well-coordinated team—each station set up the same way, every task done with confidence, and no one wasting time guessing what to do next. That’s what happens when teams work together to build solutions that actually work. Standardizing the way we do things doesn’t take away creativity—it removes confusion. When everyone follows the same proven process, the day runs smoother, the food looks and tastes better, and the job fe