School Lunches May Be in the Running for a Michelin Star

San Diego Unified School District is adding Sandi Coast Cafe to their campuses, offering a new menu of nutritious meals. Veronica Carter and Bret Burkhart found out more from executive director of Food & Nutrition for SDUSD, Alicia Pitrone Hauser.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The schools. Starting August tenth, San Diego Unified is opening
Sandy Coast Cafe, getting students a new menu of nutritious
meals and preparing to serve more than seventeen million of
them throughout this upcoming school year.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sounds delicious. Joining us now on the Coco News liveline
is the executive director of Food and Nutrition at sdusd
Alesia Petrone Hauser. Alicia, thanks for joining us on San
Diego's morning news.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
It is my pleasure to join you. Thank you so
much for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
So this is called the Sandy Coast Cafe. Why the change?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
We are always striving to meet student needs. Last year
we received over six thousand responses across the district from students,
parents and staff, and we're trying to respond and put
items on the menu that are not only nutritious and delicious,
but that the students will enjoy. And so you've got

(00:55):
a lot of great gratch, semi scratch items on the
menu where students even participated in writing the recipes.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
You know, this is a lot different than back in
my day.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean, the Lunch Ladyland is a lot different than
it used to be.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Absolutely, yes, it has changed a lot since I was
in school as well. I don't know if you were
ever offered student developed hot honey chicken bowl. Hot honey
is the popular trend right now, and our students in
the culinary Arts program at Morse High School actually developed
that recipe for us, so you'll see that on our

(01:31):
high school menu. You've got things like the traditional spaghetti
with meat sauce. That's always a hit. We might have
seen that back in the day. We're doing Kee Siberia.
We've got carnitas, burritos, lots of really wonderful items for
the kids to enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Five years ago, California became the first state in the
nation to guarantee free breakfast and lunch actually to any student,
regardless of income. Are you still able to provide those
free meals and what does breakfast include as well?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yes? Absolutely. I'm so fortunate to lead this program in
the state of California, where our government has prioritized children's
health with the Universal Meals program, and so yes, happy
to report that that program is still in place. All students,
regardless of family income, can enjoy a free breakfast in

(02:23):
lunch with us every day, and the breakfast menu likewise
has lots of really wonderful options for students to start
their day fueled, ready for learning. And so some of
the really fun items that you might want to come
and try along with us. We've got a mango parfe,
We've got a very cherry smoothie bowl. We've got some

(02:45):
scratch made whole grain cinnamon rolls, again to provide the
foundation to a good start to their school day.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Alisa Patrol Hawser is the executive director of Food and
Nutrition at San Diego Unified School. How important are full
tummies when it comes to learning?

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh, it's imperative. In Maslovs hierarchy of needs pyramid, if
anybody's familiar with that. The foundation is a sound body,
and so as human beings, you can imagine how you
feel when you maybe have just had a coffee in
the morning and it's one o'clock and you haven't had lunch,
and you notice that you might have a headache, and

(03:25):
you might be a little angry, as they say, And
so fueling kids with the proper nutrition is absolutely critical
to student health. All right.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
It's called the Sandy Coast Cafe and it's with San
Diego Unified School District. Alicia thank you so much for
talking to us.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Thanks Alicia, we'll be first in line.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
Fantastic. The invitation is open. Thank you so much for
having me.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Alicia patrona Hauser is the director of Food and Nutrition
for San Diego Unified