Scratch cooking is at the core of everything we do. To evaluate changes in scratch cooking capacity, we’ve developed a novel data collection instrument that analyzes all entrees and sides on a representative K-12 lunch menu. This tool calculates the percentage of scratch-cooked menu items based on their ingredients and culinary techniques. In addition, we can track districts annually to measure their progress along the scratch-cooking continuum.

When first engaging with a new district, the Chef Ann Foundation prepares a tailored and comprehensive assessment that details the steps needed to move toward scratch cooking. After receiving this report, the Chef Ann Foundation works with districts to co-develop a strategic plan that prioritizes action items and a timeline for completion. We track district progress on their strategic plans annually, stratifying completion status based on time frame and focus area. 

Additionally, we conduct semi-structured interviews with food service directors to understand facilitators and barriers to implementing strategic plan recommendations, ensuring long-term sustainability of these practices.

The Healthy Meal Score is a novel measurement tool developed by the Center for Nutrition and Health Impact that evaluates changes in the healthy school meal environment as districts increase scratch cooking. This tool tracks changes within six domains: procurement, recipes, beverages, produce, à la carte, and commodities.

Read more about how we applied the Healthy Meal Score to evaluate Get Schools Cooking Cohort 4.

Based upon each program’s goals, we identify relevant outcomes, in addition to scratch cooking, that measure the impact of our work. Examples of district outcomes include:

• Local procurement
• Reductions in food and packaging waste
• Environmental impact
• Cost savings
• Student engagement
• Culinary skills and knowledge

We leverage a variety of data collection instruments to measure impact, including district data requests and surveys.

Our experienced team of school food operators provides a wide range of technical assistance and training within our five key areas of systems change: food, finance, facilities, human resources, and marketing. We’ve developed internal tracking systems, allowing us to monitor the quantity, quality, and variety of technical assistance that we provide across our programs. This is often used to monitor process measures, such as dosage and fidelity, so that we can document how much training district partners receive each school year. 

In addition, we’re implementing a new feedback system for technical assistance engagement to better understand how knowledge and skills gained from these sessions translate to meaningful improvements in the school food setting.

Our Research & Evaluation Team works with each program team to ensure their program design is well-defined and that primary outcomes are supported by strong causal theory. 

All Chef Ann Foundation programs have a logic model, a visual representation of how a program is intended to work, and it is used to inform evaluation planning. We ensure that each program’s logic model supports the underlying theory of change for the organization. The logic model also outlines primary stakeholders and audiences served to identify opportunities for collaboration and engagement. This ensures program outcomes and deliverables are aligned with stakeholder needs.

The U.S. school food workforce is responsible for feeding and nourishing approximately 30 million K-12 students annually, yet there is limited research on the unique characteristics and challenges this workforce faces. To address this knowledge gap, four research studies have been awarded a total of $800,000 to facilitate a greater understanding of the K-12 school food workforce and the structure of their jobs. The findings will inform effective strategies to create a stable and respected school food workforce, improve meal quality, and promote overall student health. 

This subgrant research program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service and cooperatively administered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chef Ann Foundation, and Food Insight Group.

Learn more about this research.

To support implementing the Healthy School Food Pathway program in California, we’ve collaborated on multiple research studies examining how staff shortages and pay disparities negatively impact school districts’ capacity to meet state priorities for nutrition quality, scratch cooking, and local procurement. 

In 2023, the Food Insight Group, in collaboration with the Chef Ann Foundation and California School Nutrition Association, conducted a survey of school food authorities in California to examine the current number of school nutrition jobs that were vacant during the 2022-2023 school year. A combined 12.1% of school nutrition jobs, representing an estimated 1,350 positions, were vacant, almost double the national average among other food service industries (6.6%). The high rate of vacancies and turnover among school food workers exacerbates labor challenges experienced by school food authorities, both in California and nationally. Learn more about this research.

In 2024, the Urban Institute, in collaboration with the Food Insight Group and Chef Ann Foundation, conducted a survey of school food authorities in California to better understand wage equity and job quality among school food workers. They found that school food workers often earn significantly less than what is needed to afford a one-bedroom dwelling in their district. Moreover, school-based food service occupations had lower job quality scores than comparable food service roles in other industries, putting additional strain on school food authorities to hire and retain workers. Learn more about this research.

We’re partnering with five school districts on a groundbreaking pilot study supported by the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate the toxicological safety and nutritional quality of school meals. 

Reaching 44,627 students across 71 schools, this research will help schools shift toward whole-food, minimally processed menus while reducing potential contaminants, such as heavy metals. A total of 21 school sites will be participating in data collection for the Food and Drug Administration. These districts include:

• Brownsville Independent School District (TX)
• Groton Central School District (NY)
• Ithaca City School District (NY)
• Newfield Central School District (NY)
• Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (NY)

We are partnering with participating districts to shift menus toward whole-food, minimally processed meals, reduce potential contaminants (such as heavy metals), and measure changes over the project period. We will also partner with Dr. Maria Gombi-Vaca and Dr. Juliana Cohen to analyze ultraprocessed foods served on district menus and validate the Chef Ann Foundation’s scratch-cooking continuum.

This project is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $3.8 million with 100% funded by FDA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, FDA/HHS or the U.S. Government.

• Name: LeMonie Hutt
• School: Harvard University
• Area of study: Government and policy
• Project: LeMonie partnered with the Chef Ann Foundation for an applied case study in her “Education in the Economy” course. She examined how district participation in the Get Schools Cooking program is associated with improved student behavioral outcomes, such as lower suspension rates. Through this research, she demonstrated the potential for leveraging state-level databases to better understand how scratch cooking has positive benefits beyond the cafeteria.

No one’s talking about meeting kids’ basic needs. It’s great that the Chef Ann Foundation are creating case studies to start answering these questions of how vital nutrition is in students’ behavioral and academic rates. —LeMonie Hutt

• Name: Hyomin Lee
• School: Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins
• Area of study: Environmental health & engineering
• Project: Exploring food waste in scratch cooking school kitchens participating in the National School Lunch Program by examining real-time waste data, workers’ perspectives, and procurement practices in scratch-cooked school operations.  

As an aspiring researcher interested in environmental and public health, I value Chef Ann Foundation’s attention to the full complexity of the school food system and its broader impact on healthy schools and sustainability. Their thoughtful, collaborative team brings both insight and integrity to this work, making them a uniquely valuable partner. —Hyomin Lee

• Name: Kaimana James Stovall
• School: University of Colorado Boulder
• Area of study: Electrical & computer engineering
• Project: As a research & evaluation intern, Kaimana administered scratch cooking worksheets to better understand how school district host sites for our California Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship programs were progressing along the scratch cooking-continuum. 

I am thrilled to be a part of the Chef Ann Foundation in order to help take more steps forward to help schools take part in scratch cooking to benefit school kids’ health. —Kaimana James Stovall