Fast, Fresh, and Local: Natomas Unified’s Cafeteria Revolution
This April, our team hit the road to visit a few Eat Real districts that are reimagining school meals—making them more delicious, nutritious, and locally sourced. We brought together district leaders, legislators, farmers, vendors, and school food partners to see firsthand just how incredible school lunch can be.
To kick off the season, we headed to northwest Sacramento to tour Natomas Unified School District’s central kitchen. Certified Green in November 2023, NUSD serves nearly 17,000 students each year. As the most diverse district in California, and the second most diverse in the country, NUSD proudly prioritizes culturally relevant meals that reflect and celebrate its community.
Attendees were welcomed by Jenn Orosoco, Director of Nutrition Services & Warehousing. Jenn has worked with the district since 2012 and understands the importance of investing in her team to foster a creative environment. She encourages them to draw from their own culinary experiences to create and test new recipes for students to love:
“[Eat Real certification] became a game! How many points can I get for this? Let’s adjust our menu to make it work and just test it out with our students. They were definitely taking to the new menu and changes–it became something fun! It pushes us to be better for our students.”
We had the pleasure of meeting her incredible team, who led us through their central kitchen operations. The aroma of simmering pulled pork in tilt skillets filled the room, and it was quickly apparent just how lucky these NUSD students are!
Speed scratch FTW
Natomas has optimized their kitchen operations district-wide by implementing a speed scratch production method. Portions of the meals are scratch made in the district’s central kitchen, and then paired with minimally processed pre-made items to improve nutrition across the board while saving staff time. For example, their student-favorite mac and cheese with scratch-made sauce — created using a kitchen manager’s own family recipe! — is paired with minimally processed packaged noodles.
Cooking up confidence
The Independent Life Skills Program employs current and former students with different learning abilities to work in the kitchen. From mastering kitchen tools to earning their Food Handlers Certification, students walk away with real skills — and the confidence and independence to take on life with purpose.
Nacho average taco bar
For lunch, attendees helped themselves to a colorful taco bowl bar that included chicken and vegetarian flautas and roasted local vegetables sourced through the Spork Food Hub. NUSD partners with Spork Food Hub to source a whopping 90% of their fresh produce from local Northern California farmers.
“As a farmer, I like to know what happens to food after I grow it. The food going to kids and being treated with such respect and providing such an amazing meal for students is incredibly fulfilling.”
– Shayne Zurilgen, Spork Food Hub Founder
A beautiful day at the park
The tour ended, but the party kept going! In partnership with the Athletics, we hosted local and visiting school food heroes for a day at the ballpark. They got to sit back and relax with their fellow foodservice champions while we celebrated the impactful work they do everyday.
This is school food!
