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The Lunch Box

The Lunch Box (TLB) is an online toolkit that provides free step-by-step guides, tools, recipes and other resources to help schools improve their meal programs and convert to scratch-cooking.

See how our signature program ties into our Theory of Change here.

The Lunch Box

The Lunch Box (TLB) is an online toolkit that provides free step-by-step guides, tools, recipes and other resources to help schools improve their meal programs and convert to scratch-cooking.

See how our signature program ties into our Theory of Change here.

For many students across the country, school meals can be the most nutritious meal of the entire day, but too often these meals are highly processed. Schools don’t have the operational knowledge or experience required to provide fresh, healthy, and delicious food in a cook from scratch operation.

For many students across the country, school meals can be the most nutritious meal of the entire day, but too often these meals are highly processed. Schools don’t have the operational knowledge or experience required to provide fresh, healthy, and delicious food in a cook from scratch operation.

The Lunch Box is specifically designed to support school district food service teams as they transition their meal programs from processed to scratch cook using fresh ingredients. With open source resources that provide technical support, school districts are able to use The Lunch Box to expand their capacity and ensure that healthy food reaches even more kids each and every day. Users have free access to scalable and downloadable recipes, USDA compliant menu cycles, procurement tools, financial calculators, implementation strategies for salad bars, training tools, marketing materials such as posters and signs, and much more!

TLB offers:

  • Relevant, up-to-date operational content and resources that enable school districts to serve healthy, scratch-cooked meals
  • Information about programs and opportunities that solve common problems experienced by school food service teams
  • Tools for marketing and promoting their lunch program and healthy eating
25,061

registered users

106,643

resources downloaded

143,837

total users YTD

25,061

registered users

106,643

resources downloaded

143,837

total users YTD

Program Targeted Outcomes

1

Reach more schools with free, relevant, and up-to-date content and resources that enable cooking healthy, scratch cooked meals

2

Educate food service professionals on the programs and opportunities that solve common problems experienced by school food service teams

3

Motivate and support schools with content that covers a wide range of school food operator needs, including financial management

Program Details

The Lunch Box is the largest online resource for scratch cooking in schools. It is designed specifically to support school district food service teams as they transition their food programs from processed foods to scratch cooking with fresh ingredients.

The online toolkit provides technical support to help districts expand their services, ensuring that healthy food reaches more kids every day. Users have free access to:

SCALE-ing up

The Lunch Box also features our newest resource for K-12 school programs: the Scratch Cooking Assessment & Learning Evaluation (SCALE). After 12+ years of operational assessments and support, we’ve built the first free-access digital platform that offers the first comprehensive self-assessment focused on enhancing school meal programs and increasing scratch cooking. This platform works with any size of district or level of cooking, and provides a specialized report with custom recommendations and step-by-step guides. As part of The Lunch Box, SCALE helps districts review and assess their own school food programs, and then connect with useful resources and guides. What used to only be available to districts through an on-site assessment is now widely available for all districts through this innovative platform.

Program Flyer

Would you like to post information about the The Lunch Box program? Download our program one pager now!


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Get Schools Cooking

Get Schools Cooking (GSC) is an intensive 3-year assessment and strategic planning program that provides schools with the operational knowledge to transition from a heat & serve to scratch cook operational model.

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Salad Bars to Schools (SB2S) supports schools in expanding their commitment to serving fresh fruits and vegetables by donating salad bars to school districts across the United States.

SCHOOL FOOD INSTITUTE

The School Food Institute gives school food service professionals and childhood nutrition advocates the in-depth training, operational skills, and strategic vision necessary to make school food fresh, healthy, and sustainable.

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