Elevating School Staples: Dryden’s “Renegade Breakthrough"
Meet our 2026 Renegades at Dryden Central School District
November 05, 2026 | By
After ditching frozen meals and scooping food out of cans into portion cups, this rural New York district introduced scratch cooking, scrapped chocolate milk, and boosted student participation by 75%.
Across rural central New York, the lunch cafeterias at Dryden Central School District smell different than they used to. Wafts of garlic and herbs simmer in a house-made sauce as the scent of freshly baked dough rises from the ovens.
At Dryden, pizza day is no longer about unwrapping cardboard-like frozen squares. Instead, students line up for fresh pies baked in small batches right before each lunch bell rings — made with locally sourced crusts, rich mozzarella, and the kitchen’s signature tomato sauce made entirely from scratch.
Dryden's kitchen team proved what school food champions have long believed: kids don't need ultraprocessed shortcuts to love lunch.
Why This Matters Right Now
In rural school districts like Dryden, school meals are not an afterthought; they’re a primary source of daily nutrition for a significant portion of the student body. When children spend their school days fueled by ultraprocessed foods packed with refined sugars and sodium, their health, energy, and ability to learn suffer.
Across rural central New York, the lunch cafeterias at Dryden Central School District smell different than they used to. Wafts of garlic and herbs simmer in a house-made sauce as the scent of freshly baked dough rises from the ovens.
At Dryden, pizza day is no longer about unwrapping cardboard-like frozen squares. Instead, students line up for fresh pies baked in small batches right before each lunch bell rings — made with locally sourced crusts, rich mozzarella, and the kitchen’s signature tomato sauce made entirely from scratch.
Dryden's kitchen team proved what school food champions have long believed: kids don't need ultraprocessed shortcuts to love lunch.
Why This Matters Right Now
In rural school districts like Dryden, school meals are not an afterthought; they’re a primary source of daily nutrition for a significant portion of the student body. When children spend their school days fueled by ultraprocessed foods packed with refined sugars and sodium, their health, energy, and ability to learn suffer.
The Obstacle: A System Built for Reheating
Dryden’s food service staff always cared about feeding their students well, but the district inherited an operational model designed entirely around reheating. “Aside from making chili from scratch, nearly everything we served came out of a box or a can," explains Megan Munson, Dryden’s School Lunch Director. “Because past leadership hadn’t invested in training, our team had limited knife skills and minimal confidence with raw ingredients,” she adds. The team was equipped to reheat factory-made food, not to cook from scratch.
The Renegade Breakthrough: Becoming Cooks Again
Munson and her staff refused to settle for the status quo. "We knew that if we could replace a processed favorite with a fresh, wholesome alternative, it would completely transform how students viewed our meals," Munson shared. So they started with classic kid staples to build their menu from the ground up:
The Obstacle: A System Built for Reheating
Dryden’s food service staff always cared about feeding their students well, but the district inherited an operational model designed entirely around reheating. “Aside from making chili from scratch, nearly everything we served came out of a box or a can," explains Megan Munson, Dryden’s School Lunch Director. “Because past leadership hadn’t invested in training, our team had limited knife skills and minimal confidence with raw ingredients,” she adds. The team was equipped to reheat factory-made food, not to cook from scratch.
The Renegade Breakthrough: Becoming Cooks Again
Munson and her staff refused to settle for the status quo. "We knew that if we could replace a processed favorite with a fresh, wholesome alternative, it would completely transform how students viewed our meals," Munson shared. So they started with classic kid staples to build their menu from the ground up:
