Taco Tuesday at RISE Charter School in Southeast Raleigh looks a little different from the cafeteria meals adults may remember.
It starts with a choice of shredded chicken, beef or a vegetarian option. Then comes Spanish rice, pico de gallo and cheese, followed by cucumbers and carrots with ranch. At the end of the line, students can add yogurt, fresh cantaloupe or watermelon to their trays.
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Each item was labeled with allergens and serving sizes, down to how much of each food group students needed to meet USDA meal requirements. For fourth grader Jorge Barrera, having a say in what winds up on his tray matters.
“We get to pick our food and what we want, and we have a chef,” Barrera said. “It’s not like other schools that you get what they pick and not what you want.”
The fresh fruits and vegetables are a favorite for Barrera. “My favorite part of the food is the carrots and vegetables,” he said. “I think this is more fun because you get to pick what you want. Some people like certain stuff.”
As volunteers served up options for more than 500 students, chefs in the kitchen were already preparing for the next day's "Worldly Wednesday," with beef keema, butter chicken with naan and Indian cauliflower on the menu.
It's all part of a new scratch-kitchen pilot at the K-8 charter school on Idlewood Village Drive.
RISE was already participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision, which allows the school to provide meals to all students at no cost. This year, the school is working with Raleigh-based Food Paradigm and Overflowing Hands to test whether those meals can instead be prepared fresh and from scratch each day while staying within the financial constraints of a school meal program.
RISE Executive Director Dawn Arthur said improving the food students eat during the school day has been a priority for years, and the new partnership provided an opportunity to put that vision into practice.
"We have an opportunity to do the right thing by kids, and that is to serve them great food, scratch food in their school day," Arthur said.
Now, the goal is to determine whether the pilot can become a model for other schools to follow.
“We are setting a new standard for food at school in partnership with Food Paradigm and Overflowing Hands,” Arthur said. “They have a vision for changing school food systems into scratch cooking that is made fresh daily, and we offered to be the first school in that vision.”
The change goes beyond swapping out a few menu items.
Dean Ogan, a Food Paradigm board member and founder of Rocky Top Catering, was recruited to help launch the culinary side of the program. He said preparing hundreds of meals across breakfast and lunch requires systems for everything from purchasing ingredients to preparing meat and cutting vegetables.
"When you're preparing 800 to 900 meals, the only way to really do that is with really good systems and processes," Ogan said. “What we’re trying to do is provide first and foremost a delicious product that they're going to love.”
Ogan said the process isn’t as effective unless students, like Barrera, understand the choices in front of them.
“The school has to get the buy-in with the kids through education,” Ogan said. “They’re making sure to educate the children on what they’re eating, where the food comes from, and why it’s really good for them.”
After Taco Tuesday and Worldly Wednesday, Thursday's planned menu included homemade turkey meatballs with pomodoro sauce and lemon garlic chicken.
Ogan said part of the goal is to expose students to different foods while also making meals they actually want to eat.
"What we've learned is very simple. If you serve a really good product at the right temperature, hot foods hot and cold foods cold, and fresh fruits and vegetables, the kids love it," Ogan said. "There's been nothing more gratifying than these kids coming up and asking us for seconds."
Behind the food is a bigger question RISE hopes to answer through the pilot: Can a scratch-kitchen model like this be financially sustainable?
Arthur said the school receives about $2.50 in reimbursement for each breakfast served and about $4.50 for each lunch.
For the program to eventually become cost-neutral, those reimbursements would need to cover everything from the food itself to the staff preparing and serving it.
The school's overall food program costs about $500,000, she said, with federal reimbursements covering roughly 80% of the cost. Grants and community support are covering some of the costs of implementing the new model as school leaders determine what it will take to operate long term.
"At the end of the day, if we can operate this school food program at greater than 80% with the reimbursements filling the cost, then I think it's an overall win for our school and for hopefully all schools," Arthur said.
Meeting federal requirements goes beyond what ends up on a student's tray. Staff also have to track production and maintain records required for the school to receive reimbursement for the meals it serves.
Even the utensils used to serve the food are part of that precision.
“We have to serve a half cup of fruits and vegetables. So, every ladle or every scoop is the exact portion, so there's no guessing,” Ogan said.
At the same time, there is the logistical challenge of moving hundreds of children through lunch while giving them time to choose their food, eat and socialize during a roughly 30-minute lunch period.
Volunteers from the organizations supporting the pilot, parents and other members of the RISE community are currently helping with that process. Arthur said the school will eventually have to determine what the program looks like without relying on volunteers if the model is going to be sustainable long-term.
She hopes what RISE learns through the pilot can eventually help other schools adopt a similar model. But she said the biggest potential barrier to expansion is money, with schools already balancing costs for staffing, facilities and basic needs like HVAC maintenance.
“RISE is at a place where we still have those challenges. We still have HVAC needs, and we're still looking to broaden our staffing and our program offerings,” Arthur explained. “But, I think we are experiencing a time where our community is coming around us, and we have this opportunity with these partners to pursue a challenge this big.”
The school leader continued, “I empathize with school districts and other charter schools across the state who have to make really tough choices right now. When you have to make tough choices, and education comes first, it is hard to go a step further and take the risk associated with operating a food program like this.”
RISE is using this school year to find out whether it can make the numbers work.
"My hope is truly that by the end of this year, we have tested and proven a model that works off of that reimbursement rate that makes it possible for all schools," Arthur said.