Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District in Newman, California used its Healthy Meals Incentives grant to bring in outside culinary expertise. The district hired Chef Nanci Miramontes to train foodservice staff on scratch-cooking techniques, and the menu expanded in ways that wouldn't have been possible before.
The training investment
Chef Miramontes worked directly with the kitchen team on scratch cooking fundamentals: knife skills, timing, layering flavors, and scaling recipes from home-cook quantities to institutional volumes. These are learnable skills, but they require dedicated practice and feedback. Grant funding made that possible without pulling from the core budget.
What the team cooked
The menu now includes dishes the district couldn't have attempted before the training. A short list: scratch-prepared orange chicken made with ginger, garlic, orange juice and zest; chicken tinga; chicken pesto; and butter chicken. These aren't reheated entrees from a bag. They're cooked on-site by the district's own staff.
Why the investment compounded
The skills stayed after the chef left. Staff went from executing pre-made products to cooking. That capability becomes a durable asset of the program, one that continues to pay off each year even without additional grant funding. It also improves staff retention: when people are learning and proud of their work, they stay.
What made it work
A targeted hire, sufficient time for the training to stick, and a menu philosophy that assumed the team could and would level up. The grant funded the investment; the district provided the commitment to actually implement the skills.