“We care about the health and well-being of our students. The K-12 Culinary Institute is one step that we are taking to equip our school nutrition professionals for their important roles in the schools,” said Robin Brooks, director for Chatham County Schools, School Nutrition Program. 

The face to face and virtual institute was developed by the NCDPI, School Nutrition Section, and Chef Cyndie Story’s K-12 Culinary Team, in order to meet five core objectives:

•Improve student health, well-being and academic success through nutritious, appealing meals at school,

•Increase participation in high quality, enticing school nutrition programs,

•Expand capacity of local school nutrition programs to purchase, prepare and serve fresh, locally grown produce,

•Increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grain-rich foods, and

•Provide continuing education opportunities for school nutrition personnel.

 The menus and recipes developed for the K-12 Culinary Institute include:

•Scratch, convenience, and modified scratch products and techniques,

•Instructions written for production amounts consistent with pack or pan sizes commonly available in school kitchens, and

•Nutritional analysis files for easy import into software programs and adjustments for standardization in Local Education Agencies (LEAs).

Instructional segments were covered on topics such as knife skills, weighing and measuring accurately, preparing foods for just-in-time service, work simplification and scheduling, effective use of equipment, and quality food preparation and service for a variety of meats, grains, fruits, vegetables, and condiments.

North Carolina K-12 Culinary Institute graduates become chef ambassadors prepared to teach other school nutrition professionals at the Local Education Agency/school level.

CCS School Nutrition Services proudly produces and serves tasty, nutritionally-balanced meals to the students of Chatham County.  Breakfast and lunch menus are made up of low-fat protein choices which are never fried, whole grains, vegetables, fruits and low-fat milk.  We invite all students and parents to join us for lunch and/or breakfast to see how school meals have evolved!

 Meal Prices for 2016-2017 School Year

For questions about Free and Reduced Price Meal Benefits applications, please contact the School Nutrition Office at 919.542.6600.