Rialto Unified School District brings global eats and local ingredients to students’ plates

As students at Rialto Unified School District in Rialto, California make their way through the cafeteria, they get an inside look at where some of their meal originally came from. 

“We now have one of our hydroponics growing inside the cafeteria by one of our service lines,” says Program Innovator Kristina Kraushaar. “As the kids get their meal, they get to see the hydroponics growing and then the lettuce gets used for their salads.”  

Actions such as this have awarded the team with four Healthy Meals Incentives Awards from nonprofit Action for Healthy Kids and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

Here’s a look at how the district has worked to bring innovative ideas to help students and the greater community at-large feel better connected to their meals.

Going all-in on nutrition education 

In addition to hydroponics, Rialto’s farm-to-school and nutrition education programming consists of field trips to nearby farms, having farmers come to the district to speak to students, and more. 

A handful of students even participated in an elective class that looked at climate resiliency and grew different crops for use by the nutrition team. 

“There was a curriculum that the classroom teacher worked with the kids on,” says Rialto Acting Superintendent Dr. Edward D'Souza. “So, it was a joint venture between education services and nutrition services.”

Many of the of the local ingredients end up in an array of global dishes to give students a taste of home. When the nutrition team started serving pupusas for lunch, for example, students were excited about the new menu item but also wanted some Curtido, a type of fermented cabbage slaw used in Salvadorian cuisine, to go with it. 

The nutrition team put their heads to together and developed a Curtido recipe using fresh produce from the school gardens. 

“The kids know that we're producing that fresh inside our cafeterias, and they get to have that on the side with [the pupusa].” says Kraushaar.

Bringing parents into the fold

And it’s not only the students who get involved with nutrition education and programming; parents are a part of the process as well. Instead of coffee with the principal, for example, schools in the district have events where parents are invited to come learn about the garden. 

“The parents actually come to the [school] garden and learn about the nutrition,” says Dr. D'Souza. “They learn about the plants, learn about plant rotation and all that.”

Parents also play a role in a handful of events held by the nutrition team throughout the year, including their Black History Month Celebration which features African dishes prepared by the team.  

“It’s really big,” says Lead Agent for Child Nutrition Services Fausat Rahman-Davies. “We have all the parents, community members and students join us and we have a taste testing.”  

After trying the new menu items, parents and students leave their feedback, which gets taken into account by the nutrition team as they continue to develop their menus. 

“That's how we start developing the recipes and incorporating them into the menu,” says Rahman-Davies, who also makes sure to post about the events on social media so parents and students who may have missed them can still see what happened. 

As the school year continues, the team is excited to continue incorporating additional global cuisine. Already, they’re gearing up for introducing a handful of new menu items for Asian American Heritage Month, which takes place in May. 

The menu items will represent multiple countries throughout Asia, including India, China, and others. 

“Some of the Indian cuisine we've already started to play with,” says Rahman-Davies. “Like chicken curry with rice, we started working on that already.”