Meals made from scratch with nutritious, real food ingredients are better for our health and the health of our planet.
Processed foods are energy-intensive to produce and often contain chemical additives that can harm human health and the environment. They are commonly packaged in plastic that ends up in landfills where it pollutes the planet and takes thousands of years to break down. On top of their environmental impact, processed food-related diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, and liver disease are the leading cause of early death, decreased healthspan, and COVID-19 complications.
When we nourish our bodies with real, healthful foods, we get more energy, healthier organs, and greater resiliency against the flu, COVID-19, and other infections. Cooking from scratch provides complete transparency about what we’re putting into our bodies and cultivates a deeper connection to what we eat and how it’s grown.
Scratch-cooked school meals provide our children with the nutrients they need for success in the classroom. Low-sugar breakfasts and lunches improve kids’ short-term memory and attention span. Our Eat REAL Certification program helps schools prioritize scratch cooking and incorporate more made-from-scratch items on their breakfast and lunch menus.
The School Food Project at Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) exemplifies a scratch-cooked school lunch program by sourcing fresh, nutritious, local ingredients and serving nearly 14,000 scratch-cooked meals to students each day.
Vacaville Unified School District has continued to serve scratch-made breakfasts and lunches to thousands of students every day while they participate in remote-learning.
“Every day our whole goal is to strive to get better and serve more healthy more local foods”. – Juan Cordon, Director of Nutrition Services for VUSD
By helping our school systems move away from overly processed meals, we ensure our children have healthier, longer lifespans in a more sustainable world. Feeding our kids nutrient-rich, real food sets them up for success in the classroom and beyond while establishing life-long healthy habits.
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