Cypress district shifts to scratch-cooked school meals, aims for fresher food on a tight budget

Parisa Shukla, director of Child Nutrition Services for Cypress School District, told the board on April 11 that the district has moved to prepare more meals from scratch at school sites to improve freshness and student acceptance.

Shukla said the department currently serves about 550 breakfasts, 2,300 lunches and 350 snacks daily with a 15-person team model and two staff assigned at each school site. After contracting with Brigade, a chef-led consultancy, the district piloted site-based scratch cooking and in 2023 replaced roughly 40% of prepackaged items with freshly prepared alternatives such as quesadillas, grilled cheese, roasted broccoli and house-made granola.

"Students have really made a lot of comments on how the food is fresher and tastier and better quality now that we're serving things from scratch," Shukla said.

Shukla described operational changes that made the shift possible: purchasing a tilt skillet and larger dishwashers, expanding refrigeration and freezer capacity at sites, and changing ordering and delivery timelines so schools receive frozen or dry goods two to three days before service. She said the district began cooking lunch at each school site in November after a brief October pilot at Morris.

The director outlined constraints that limit expansion: staffing (two employees per site with limited prep time), equipment availability, supply-chain lead times (most items are ordered three to four weeks in advance) and nutrition regulations. Shukla said the district receives $5.30 in state/federal reimbursement for each lunch and aims to keep food costs at about 40% of that revenue—approximately $2.12 per lunch—to remain self-sustaining.

To support the shift, the district has invested in training (School Nutrition Association conference sessions and in‑district professional-development days), partnered with local vendors (Gold Star distributor) and nonprofit programs (Chef Anne Foundation apprentices), and contracted with Brigade chefs for menu and kitchen workflow redesign.

Shukla also highlighted sustainability steps: switching to compostable trays, instituting share tables and organic waste recycling, arranging Food Finders pickups from Landau, and launching a partnership with Old Grove, a cooperative of small growers that will deliver produce harvested to order.

Trustees asked about students' reactions to menu trials. Shukla said some items, like a kale Caesar salad, were liked by a smaller group of students but that cornbread and an Asian noodle salad proved broadly popular. She noted that bringing unfamiliar items to children takes time and repeated exposure.

The board praised the child nutrition team's work and the decision to decentralize some cooking to school sites while maintaining a tight labor model. Shukla said the district increased only one central-kitchen position to coordinate ordering and logistics and plans to begin serving scratch barbecue chicken and freshly baked cornbread the following week.

The next steps include continued menu testing, staff training, using newly installed equipment, and monitoring costs and student participation to balance nutrition goals with budget constraints.