Springfield Public Schools—Food Services opened the Culinary and Nutrition Center in April of 2019. Our mission and goals are to eliminate student hunger by increasing the quality, sustainability, and efficiency of the child nutritional programs in our schools and community. Goals: 1) Improve food quality served students; 2) Increase student participation in food programs; and 3) Increase student learning opportunities. FoodCorps service members are instrumental in this mission-driven work. Our experience working with FoodCorps has been incredible! The service members bring energy, enthusiasm, and meaning to the work Food Services does every day and make the connection for students and the meals we serve. FoodCorps members have brought Springfield Public Schools to another level, developing and producing video series to celebrate new dishes we make and provide transparency to families and staff about what meal service looks like. FoodCorps members have helped support our grab-and-go meal sites during COVID with special events and donations. They also have continued to bring hands on lessons to students, even in a remote year, by organizing ingredient distributions for students to grab cooking supplies to recreate recipes and lessons together over Zoom. FoodCorps members bringing incredible professional development back to the district and are providing valuable insight into processes which previously have been overlooked. We are excited to continue this partnership and implement the best practices we are learning together. Our work is a collaborative process with the district and our food service management company and one that is yielding impactful and sustainable results.

As Springfield Public Schools district continues its transformation of the school meal program, FoodCorps service members will help engage families in the meal program improvements through generating content for online learning and social media engagement, in person work including in-classroom lessons and community events. FoodCorps members support and generate content for school-wide communications, capture and integrate student voice in menus, and create cafeteria environments that celebrate and encourage healthy choices. FoodCorps members have helped install 3 gardens over the past several years and will help install several more next year. FoodCorps school placements for the coming year are still to be determined. We will prioritize the following criteria: FoodCorps service members will support the district goals to increase student and community engagement in the district’s meal programs in the following ways:

• Hands-on Education: Ongoing weekly and bi-weekly lessons in both classroom and garden spaces with 2 district elementary schools.
• Raising Student Voice in Menus: Create the feedback loops necessary to connect data and information from taste tests and sample surveys to District level FNS
• Increased Cultural Relevance: Service members taste test new menu options to gauge student approval rating and survey students to understand what foods they want to see on their trays and for breakfast in the classroom options.
• Changing Attitudes about School Meals: FoodCorps service members bring enthusiasm and excitement about healthy foods, new menu items, and school meals to the schools, shifting the common perception about school food.
• Cafeteria Look and Feel: Small but important enhancements to the look and feel of the cafeterias through menu boards, posters, murals, table toppers, etc.