ScratchWorks Blog, May 2024
By Abby de Riel
Following a successful Inaugural Gathering in Spring 2023 and much collaboration between food service directors, one of ScratchWorks’ three pillars — Shared Learning — is continuing the conversation. ScratchWorks participants from school districts around the country are sharing best practices and supporting each other to advance school food programs along the scratch cooking continuum.
This school year, 18 new ScratchWorks participants and three founding members joined together to form the Shared Learning Committee. The Committee formally designed a three-part Speaker Series for ScratchWorks participants: Developing Staff Culinary Skills, Purchasing Equipment, and Engaging Students. Each session features 20 minutes of presentation and 40 minutes of questions and conversation, followed by two workshops in subsequent weeks to “continue the conversation.”
We spoke with RJ Lane, a new ScratchWorks participant and member of the Shared Learning Committee, to learn about the first session: Developing Staff Culinary Skills.
RJ Lane, a District Chef of West Contra Costa Unified School District (Bay Area, California), has helped design the Speaker Series. An Inaugural Fellow with the Chef Ann Foundation, RJ first came to ScratchWorks through the 2023 Gathering in Austin and found himself talking with other participants about a shared resources model. Bringing 25 years of experience in restaurant kitchens, RJ’s transition to working in school districts required scratch cooking
skills he had not yet learned before. He attributes much of his learning about school food to his current fellowship peers. That peer-to-peer connection inspired him to stay involved with participants at the ScratchWorks Inaugural Gathering and help lead the creation of a continued learning model.
When the opportunity arose to join one of ScratchWork’s pillar Committees, RJ stepped up to lead with Iris Tirado, Food Service Director of Concordia Charter School (Mesa, Arizona). Both are Inaugural Fellows with the Chef Ann Foundation and talked during the Spring 2023 Gathering — but felt that more time was needed to pose questions and suggestions to each other. Thus the Speaker Series was born, starting with three presenters and dozens of participants listening in for the Developing Staff Culinary Skills (Culinary Training) sessions this May.
RJ led the initial presentation session with Alonso Alonso (Nutrition Services Chef of San Bernadino City Unified School District, California) and Richie Wilim (Director of Student Nutrition, Redwood City School District, California). RJ’s love for culinary training originates from his time at West Contra Costa USD where he oversees 56 school locations. He learned that cooks did not typically receive much training; in the last few decades, school food has transitioned from scratch-cooked to processed, requiring less training. As a result, most cooks enter the job without the culinary skills needed for the mass production of scratch-cooked foods. They understandably are intimidated by the idea of preparing food from scratch for their kids at lunch.
One of the biggest hurdles in school food nationwide is equipping staff with new culinary skills and building their confidence when presented with new recipes. Slowly, RJ began introducing training lessons for his cooks, and, to his surprise, the training was very well-received as cooks opened up and were excited for the opportunity to learn new skills.
Each school district’s training differs per available resources. Still, the most effective training models have been offering staff a 1-year culinary school-type program, single and multiple-day focused training, and training videos that may be accessed online by anyone at any time. RJ runs Culinary Boot Camps for his school cook staff that run 1–3 days, with multiple hands-on classes on scratch cooking skills spanning beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Chef Alonso’s approach is creating 2–4 minute YouTube videos for his staff on culinary skills and menu items so that cooks can view them in kitchens as they need. This format works well in his district’s kitchens, as there is technology available to watch videos while preparing recipes. Richie shared his 1-year Culinary School-style training program for staff covering the basics of scratch cooking, from Mise en Place to Mother Sauces. The longer program format allows for field trips, competency tests, assigned reading, and skill instructions and takes place outside of work hours so that cooks can learn alongside their employment.
Follow-up engagement among participants from these sessions has been incredibly strong, with a specific interest in creating a data hub sharing school recipes, product manufacturing guides, HACCP (a national food safety management system) teaching tools, and culinary training guides. RJ shared, “The best thing about school food is you can’t steal each others’ clients — so it’s a very open collaboration, and it’s fun to get to experiment so much in many different districts.”
After the first session, RJ and his Committee colleagues will begin to compile data and resources in the most efficient way for everyone. The Speaker Series sessions are just the starting point for conversations and connections that will last decades. RJ shared excitement about this and the upcoming Purchasing Equipment session: he is modernizing his kitchen this summer and will need to make some equipment decisions, allowing him to learn from his colleagues who have more experience and can guide him through this process.
Above all, the opportunity to connect with people is RJ’s “this is why I do what I do” in ScratchWorks. Following the Gathering and continuing through the Shared Learning Program, RJ has received many invitations to stop by others’ school districts—everyone just wants to help each other and have someone come by and see what they’re doing. He plans to visit others on his next family road trip.
RJ shared, “It’s so valuable to connect with school food leaders from all walks of life and district experiences. Everyone can help each other and you never know what someone can bring to the table until you start talking with them. Just ask people things — the diversity of connections is what we have to be able to grow!”
ScratchWorks is supported thanks to generous funding from the From Now on Fund, Life Time Foundation, Newman’s Own Foundation, Wellness in the Schools, and Whole Kids Foundation.