McAteer Culinary Center 26-27 SY

The McAteer Culinary Center is not closing. They will continue serving one free breakfast and lunch every school day to the SOTA community and other select schools across SFUSD. The dining team will continue to cook freshly prepared meals on site in the 26-27 School Year.

Yes, there will be changes to the menu. In an effort to offer equitable meals, we will have the same menu offered across middle and high schools. The menu offered will be the Refresh Menu, which is updated three times a school year. McAteer Culinary Center, while serving the same items, will have different recipes reflecting their ability to cook from scratch, including locally sourced raw proteins. 

• The Refresh menu is currently offered at 19 middle and high schools. The food offered at these schools is freshly prepared at each site by skilled school food professionals. The menu adheres to SFUSD’s strict nutrition standards that are set by the USDA, CDE, CDSS, and the SFUSD Nutrition Guidelines and Wellness Policy.
• Breakfast focuses on fresh, whole fruit, grains, and protein. Lunch entrees include grains and protein, and must be taken with at least 1 serving of fruit or veggies.
• All SFUSD Sites, including those offering the Refresh menu, guarantee one free Breakfast & Lunch for students daily.
• The current menu served out of the McAteer Culinary Center already looks similar to the menu served at schools serving the Refresh Menu. For example, the daily turkey & cheese sandwiches, Chicken or Tofu Bahn Mi, Birria and Cheese Pupusa, Turkey Taco Bowl with Rice, Cheeseburger, and Gyro Bowls. These meals always come with the option of fresh fruits and veggies. 

• Below you will find some sample meals at Refresh Schools across SFUSD

  

• The Refresh menu is developed, first and foremost, in alignment with the Federal, State, and local nutrition regulations. Meal costs are also a primary consideration.
• Beyond that, menu entrees are developed by our menu committee, made up of culinary professionals with decades of experience. The menu entree ideas are then tested and refined at one of our schools. 
• Next, the Menu Committee collaborates with our Student Engagement Coordinator to conduct student taste tests to garner student feedback in an effort to ensure menu items are Student Approved.
• Refresh menus operate on a 3-week cycle, meaning that there’s roughly 32 different entrees served within that 3-week period. Every school day, there are 4 entrees offered. Two menu items repeat every day to provide consistency, while 2 change every day for those 3 weeks. This menu is updated seasonally, meaning about 3 times per school year.

We are making this change to offer more equitable meal selections across middle and high schools. Until this point, some middle and high schools were offered our Refresh menu choices, some high schools were offered the McAteer menu choices, and some middle and high schools were offered meals provided by our prepared meals vendor, Revolution Foods. With this change, all 32 middle and high schools will be offered the same menu. Find examples on our website at sfusd.edu/menus.

The McAteer Expansion Program will continue. The schools it serves will be adjusted in the next school year to account for changing infrastructure and operational needs. This includes the 11 standalone Early Education sites that will transition to the menu from our Prepared Meals Vendor. See details in “Why is this change happening, and what are the implications?”.

Did you know our menus, both Refresh and Prepared Meals, incorporate items such as pupusas, tamales, Szechuan dumplings, gyro bowls, taco bowls, veggie burgers, Thai Chili Chicken, and seasonal fruits and veggies that offer the opportunity to try new foods? For every menu offered, we conduct ongoing taste tests to garner student feedback in an effort to continuously improve our offerings. We are strictly regulated by Local, State, and Federal entities, and therefore must have standardized recipes and menus to ensure compliance and fiscal responsibility. Given the very limited flexibility we are afforded, we prioritize improving upon the existing offerings and ensuring consistent, food-safe preparation. This allows us to maintain operation under the National School Lunch Program, Child & Adult Care Food Program, and California Meals for All to continue providing free meals to all students.

You can find the SFUSD menus at sfusd.edu/menus. 

Yes, the SFUSD Wellness Policy and Nutrition Guidelines apply to every SFUSD School. You can find it at sfusd.edu/bewell.