School Food Transformation

Why School Food Matters

Our primary grants and programs to improve children’s nutrition are proven ways to advance access to healthy food choices and build direct connections between kids and the roots of their food. Each salad bar or garden that a school adds is a building block towards reinventing school food.

School food transformation, however, is not about changing just one thing. It is changing everything—school districts’ entire food programs. By facilitating the right environments and partnerships for permanent systemic changes within school food, we are working to wholly transform the way students eat and think about food.

Our Approach

  • Our work is built on a spirit of collaboration, and since day one, we have been joining forces with others who share our passion. We act as a catalyst by investing in partnerships and opportunities that set the stage for deep, lasting change. By working with innovative school food leaders across the U.S., we connect with the right experts and resources so that collectively, we can amplify each other’s efforts.

  • Scratch cooking is real food made with real ingredients. When schools transition from processed (heat-and-serve) foods to cooking their own meals made with fresh ingredients, they can provide students with the nutrition needed for educational success, health and wellbeing. We’ve partnered with ScratchWorks, a collective of school food professionals and nonprofit organizations committed to supporting school districts scratch cook school meals.

  • In order to sustain systemic change, healthy advocates are needed not only in the school cafeterias but in classrooms too. School staff with knowledge about nutrition and healthy eating can be stronger role models for students and better advocate for school wellness policies. Our online and in-person Healthy Staff Program is a free nutrition and cooking class designed to transform teacher and staff wellbeing.

  • We champion meals where vegetables, fruits, whole grains and legumes are the primary ingredients because they help kids eat closer to nature and cultivate lifelong healthy eating habits. Motivated by the health and environmental benefits of plant-based meals, we are active participants in the global dialogue to increase the demand for and availability of more plants in school meals.

Salad Bar Grant

In partnership with Salad Bars to Schools.

Give kids good choices, and they’ll make good choices! A salad bar at school means kids have the choice of fresh vegetables and fruit for lunch throughout the school year.

Kids with access to a salad bar in their school cafeteria not only put more fruits and veggies on their plates, they actually eat them! The CDC reports that kids with access to a salad bar consume 36% more fruits and vegetables.

About the Program
Through key partnerships, we developed the Salad Bars to Schools grant program with the mission of donating salad bars to U.S. schools to allow kids to have daily access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Salad Bars to Schools grant includes salad bar equipment and access to salad bar specific training modules available through Chef Ann Foundation’s School Food Institute.

Salad Bar Economics
Salad bars are a viable component of a federally reimbursed school lunch. The cost for one freestanding, mobile salad bar grant is $4,560. This includes everything a school needs to get started: the bar, chill pads, pans and tongs. Each salad bar can serve a school for 10 years, which makes it incredibly cost effective!

Learn more

Applications Accepted Year Round!

  • Grant Type: Equipment Grant

  • Eligibility: U.S. School Districts or K–12 Schools

  • Grant Value: $4,560

  • Review Period: Applications are reviewed in the order they are received.

  • Notification to All Applicants: Once your application has been reviewed, you will be notified

    APPLY HERE

Whole Foods Market Foundation, Improving Children's Nutrition, School Food Transformation: Students at a School Salad Bar

Canadian Farm to School Grant

We’re fueling change in Canadian schools by getting healthy, local, sustainable food on the plates and minds of students. These comprehensive grants bring the local harvest to schools by providing school gardens, nutrition education, advocacy training and salad bars.

About the Program
Farm to Cafeteria Canada, Whole Kids and partners are pleased to announce the continuation of our Farm to School grant program to schools across Canada. The program is now available to schools, kindergarten through grade 12, across Canada’s 10 provinces and 3 territories.

These grants, valued at up to $10,000, will support bringing the local harvest to schools—engaging students, staff, and community in gardening, cooking, preserving, purchasing and serving healthy local foods in a salad bar service at school.

This funding is available for all schools (in urban, rural, remote, First Nations, and Inuit communities) and we encourage all to apply.

Questions?
For more information, visit Farm to Cafeteria Canada or email Grants@WholeKidsFoundation.org with any questions.

Learn more

Application Window Open!

  • Grant Type: Monetary, Equipment, and Consultation Grant

  • Eligibility: K-12 Schools in Canada

  • Grant Value: Up to $10,000

  • February 5, 2024: Application Opens

  • April 5, 2024: Application Closes

Whole Foods Market Foundation, Improving Children's Nutrition, School Food Transformation: Student with Lettuce

Get Schools Cooking

The Get Schools Cooking Grant was created to support school districts in the U.S. who are eager to transform their school lunch programs from processed foods to scratch-cooked meals.

About the Program
We have joined forces with Chef Ann Foundation to help districts transition from highly processed meals to scratch cooking.

Get Schools Cooking will guide selected districts through this multi-year transformative journey that includes in-person workshops for food service directors, on-site assessment, recommendations, and strategic planning, along with peer-to-peer collaboration and access to a Technical/Equipment Assistance Grant. The program has a value of nearly $250,000 per participating district (depending on district size).

To apply, school districts must meet the following criteria:

  • Be firmly committed to working towards a scratch-cooked and fresh whole foods approach to their meal programs.

  • Demonstrate support for improvement from district leadership.

  • Participate in the National School Lunch Program.

  • Run a self-operated food service program.

Why is it important?
Serving children scratch-cooked meals allows districts to offer healthy and delicious breakfast and lunch, but it’s not always an easy task—there are financial, procurement, management, education, and staffing hurdles to jump over. Oftentimes, school districts need guidance from school food experts to overcome these challenges. According to a recent Pew study, directors whose school food programs prepared more foods from scratch and increased the use of salad bars were more likely to report that student participation rose. In addition, the guidelines implemented through this program support scratch cooking that is healthier and more nutritious than serving processed foods.

How to Apply
For more information or questions on the Get Schools Cooking application process, visit ChefAnnFoundation.org or email Grants@WholeKidsFoundation.org with any questions.

Questions?
View a recent informational webinar highlighting grant details and one district's experience by clicking here.

Additional Information

  • Grant Type: Consultation and Monetary Grant

  • Grant Value: Up to $250,000

  • August 1, 2024: Application for the Next Cohort Opens

  • September 30, 2024: Applications Close

  • November–December 2024: Selected Districts Notified

  • February 2025: Workshop

  • March 2025–November 2025: Onsite Assessments

  • Fall 2025–Spring 2026: Onsite TA Visits

  • Spring 2027: Final Evaluation

Whole Foods Market Foundation, Improving Children's Nutrition, School Food Transformation: Get Schools Cooking, Students at Table with Food

Participating Districts

The school districts that applied had to disclose all aspects of their operations and demonstrate to the review committee through their application and interview that they are ready for change.

These school districts have begun implementing the recommendations from their on-site assessments and are in the midst of transitioning to healthier, scratch-cooked school food by meeting program goals. For example, they are introducing new scratch-cooked recipes, salad bars, adding new local foods, eliminating highly processed nuggets and patties, and gaining significant community support.

Professional Development 

  • We believe teachers and staff with more knowledge about nutrition and healthy eating can not only lead happier, healthier lives–they can be stronger role models for our kids and be better advocates for school wellness policies. Our Healthy Staff Program encompasses our Healthy Teachers Program and our Healthy Food Service program, which are both online and free to take. 

    LEARN MORE

  • An open peer-to-peer learning network with the goal of growing, sustaining, and elevating a movement of equitable garden-based education. The SGSO Network supports garden educators that serve at the school, district, regional, state, and national level with professional and leadership development, resources, and platforms to connect with other educators.

    We have been an active participant in the SGSO Network since its inception and have funded Life Lab’s Annual SGSO Leadership Institute since 2016, which has served as an incubator for and been instrumental in helping the SGSO Network grow and take shape as it is today.

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  • Dedicated to promoting whole-ingredient, scratch-cooking in schools by ensuring that school food professionals have the resources, funding and support they need to provide fresh, healthy, delicious, cook from scratch meals. This approach enables schools to serve the healthiest, tastiest meals so that kids are well-fed and ready to learn.

    Since the inception in 2011, we have partnered with Chef Ann Foundation across several programs focused on improving school meals from generating access to healthier fruits and veggies in the Salad Bars to Schools grant, to supporting districts in moving to scratch cooking in the Get Schools Cooking program. We're honored to also be a founding partner, along with the state of CA, of the first ever scratch-cooked school food focused Fellowship being launched by Chef Ann Foundation. The Healthy School Food Pathway Fellowship is the first of its kind and will support the next generation of diverse leaders in school food.

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  • A collective of school food professionals and non-profit organizations committed to providing children the healthiest meals possible by supporting school districts in cooking school meals from scratch using whole, fresh ingredients that provide students with the nutrition they need for their educational success, health, and wellbeing.

    A true collaboration, ScratchWorks was born from several visions that came together as one to create something more expansive and inclusive. In 2017, Bertrand Weber from Minneapolis Public Schools, the Whole Kids team, and others started developing a plan to bring School Food Professionals together for a gathering that was focused on whole foods, nourishing meals and that was not industry led.

    In 2018, Whole Kids met with Nancy Easton from Wellness in the Schools to talk programs in NYC and instead dove into Nancy's dream to create a school food innovation lab—building best practices for districts to create healthy, nutritious, and delicious school meals. Pulling in scratch cooking experts Mara Fleishman and Chef Ann Cooper from the Chef Ann Foundation and Valeria LaRosa from Life Time Foundation, Nancy Easton convened a group of Food Service Directors and partner non-profit organizations in NYC in 2019 to co-create a collective vision of possibility for the future of school meals.

    These founding members created the Scratch Cooking Continuum to support the evolution for districts to move towards scratch cooking, and initiated a focus on the following three pillars:

    1. Advocacy: Advocating for legislation to ensure that school food programs have the funding, resources, operational flexibility, and foundational sustainability needed to serve the healthiest and freshest food possible to their communities.

    2. Shared Learning: Developing a mechanism for Food Service Directors to provide peer support to advance their programs along a scratch cooking continuum.

    3. Gathering: Bringing school food professionals interested in scratch cooking together to share, learn, and connect bi-annually. In our Inaugural Gathering in Austin, April '23, we focused on Communications & Policy, Culinary, and Procurement.

    LEARN MORE