Meet the 2026 School Food Renegades

Every year for National School Lunch Week, we honor school food professionals who replace ultraprocessed foods with fresh, whole ingredients to drive systemic change.

This year, we celebrate five school districts that cook an impressive amount of food from scratch — some of the most in the country. How do we know? Our research and evaluation team surveyed 182 districts we work with during the 2025-2026 school year to assess how they make meals from scratch. These five earned some of the highest scratch-cooking scores nationwide.

“Renegades” is a term we use affectionately. It traces back to our co-founder, Chef Ann Cooper, dubbed the “Renegade Lunch Lady” when she set out to reimagine school food. Cooper chipped away at institutional systems to move closer to a world where all children could access healthy, satisfying meals every day while building positive relationships with food, themselves, their communities, and the planet.

Boulder Valley has perfected scale and quality. Their refried bean recipe is so successful that they now prepare it for neighboring schools. “Improving one menu item has become a model for helping more districts serve high-quality, scratch-cooked food," Villa said. The district also runs a Culinary Center that hosts visitors from around the country and teaches others the lessons they've worked so hard to learn. Villa adds, “Scratch cooking is no longer viewed as an extra program here; it's simply part of what we believe students deserve."

This has transformed the cafeteria culture. “Because scratch cooking has been part of BVSD for so long, our students don't see it as unusual — they simply expect their school meals to be fresh, flavorful, and good," Villa said. 

An example of that? Their veggie ramen with tofu is so popular with students across all grade levels that “a student suggested their family go out to dinner at their school cafeteria because they liked the food so much.”

Ambrosini and her team have since expanded scratch preparation to everyday staples like chicken nuggets. After acquiring a meat grinder, the kitchen replaced prepackaged nuggets with a scratch-made in-house recipe.

These transitions have changed how students and staff relate to food. Ambrosini recalled a kindergartner who previously ate only boxed macaroni and cheese. “He did not want to try anything from my kitchen. One day, I told him he only needed to try a bite, and I wouldn’t be upset if he didn’t like it. And it was our zucchini basil pesto, and he loved it! Since that moment, he was open to trying new things without being judgmental.”

The proof of Dryden's hard work and dedication is in the pizza. According to Munson, “We moved away from the standard pre-packaged, frozen pizzas and completely redesigned how we make them. Now, we use locally sourced crusts, a high-quality mozzarella cheese, and a signature pizza sauce we make in-house. Rather than cooking in bulk early in the morning, our team batch cooks the pizzas right before each lunch block so they're hot and ready for every group of students. Our pizza quickly became a student favorite, showing that classic school meals can be elevated through scratch cooking and high-quality ingredients.”

Next came chicken nuggets. The district previously relied on boxed, processed nuggets that fell short of its new quality standards. “Overhauling this item was crucial for us because chicken nuggets and tenders are an absolute staple in K-12 dining; they're often the most popular item on any school menu,” Munson said. “We knew that if we could replace a processed favorite with a fresh, wholesome alternative, it would completely transform how students viewed our meals.”

To Dryden, these foods are more than an exciting treat that students love. They are an opportunity to model what scratch cooking can mean for schools around the nation: “demonstrating that scratch cooking can elevate even the most traditional school lunch staples," Munson shared.

The beauty of providing diverse, exciting, and delicious meals is watching students’ reactions. “My favorite story about students trying new foods happened on our breakfast serving line. We always serve three hot, scratch-made breakfast items each day. This day, I was serving, and three football players came to the line. They stood there for a good minute looking back and forth, and finally one said: ‘I don’t know what I should choose, everything looks so good.’ He and the two students with him decided to each get something different and share. That was an example of real impact.”

“We started small with items we knew would be easy for our staff to successfully prepare: three homemade salad dressings, marinara sauce, and pizza sauce,” Davis said. From there, the Prince Edward team began cooking with gas, so to speak, but methodically — by introducing new recipes with only five or six ingredients in two-month increments, giving staff time to master techniques. “By the end of the school year, we had transitioned items in almost every part of our menu,” Davis shared. “What started with something as simple as homemade dressing and sauce ultimately changed the way our kitchens operate and gave our staff the confidence to become cooks again.” 

These new skills and confidence have had some tasty benefits. A middle school teacher wrote to share that her students were raving about our scratch-made ramen bowl. “One student told her it was the first time he had ever tried dumplings and that ‘they were awesome,’" Davis shared. “Another student described the meal as ‘restaurant quality.’ She joked that it was the quietest she had ever heard her class because everyone was so busy enjoying their food.” 

To encourage students' autonomy and decision-making, Prince Edward stopped cupping fruits and vegetables, allowing students to serve themselves from colorful salad bars. The district also built and strengthened relationships with local farmers, producers, and community partners, which ultimately help students learn where their food comes from and try foods they may never have experienced at home. 

At Prince Edward, Davis adopts the mindset of: “If we can serve a child something fresh today, introduce them to a new flavor tomorrow, and help them develop healthier eating habits along the way, then the impact of what we are doing reaches far beyond the cafeteria.” 

These are just a few of the countless School Food Renegades making an impact in the lives of students and their communities. Consider reaching out to the school food changemakers you know to celebrate their efforts during this National School Lunch Week!

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