{"id":2907,"date":"2026-10-20T20:23:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/?p=2907"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:23:48","slug":"cdfa-funding-helps-lawndale-esd-incorporate-scratch-cooking-into-its-15-year-strong-farm-to-school-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/2026\/10\/20\/cdfa-funding-helps-lawndale-esd-incorporate-scratch-cooking-into-its-15-year-strong-farm-to-school-program\/","title":{"rendered":"CDFA funding helps Lawndale ESD incorporate scratch cooking into its 15-year-strong farm to school program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Left, L-R) Lawndale Elementary School District (ESD) Central Kitchen\u2019s Production Chef Sandra Orozco and Doreyda Gonzalez-Davila are able to provide school meals made from scratch in part from CDFA Farm to School Incubator Grant funding. (Right) Lawndale ESD\u2019s work to highlight student voice and choice in recipe development led to this preferred Pozole Verde with Chicken dish being enjoyed by Will Rogers Middle School students.<\/em>
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Lawndale Elementary School District (ESD) in Los Angeles County is utilizing $200,000 in CDFA Farm to School Incubator Grant<\/a> funding to expand its 15-year-strong farm to school program.<\/strong> In particular, CDFA funding is helping the district expand procurement of California-grown items and create a Central Kitchen team to focus on scratch cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawndale ESD\u2019s Nutrition & Wellness Services Department served 979,820 meals, or about 5,443 meals a day, in the 2025-26 school year. During that time and continuing, the team worked to highlight student voice and choice in the recipe development process to bring culturally relevant and appealing recipes to school menus. This partnership yielded items like a Pollo Asado Bowl (Fire Grilled Chicken), Pozole Verde with Chicken (Tomatillo Hominy Stew with Chicken), Spicy and Cheesy Bean Dip, herby and fresh Buttermilk Ranch and Chocolate Chip Muffins, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe past two years have been filled with interesting and productive experiences where we have advanced and continue to grow and incorporate new recipes,\u201d<\/strong> Lawndale ESD Central Kitchen Production Chef Sandra Orozco said. \u201cWe find new success each time we see our students smile. It\u2019s a sign of their gratitude and appreciation for the work that we do.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawndale ESD\u2019s farm to school efforts include providing experiential learning opportunities like cooking and gardening to students in their pre-kindergarten-through-8th<\/sup>-grade urban district with an enrollment of about 4,300 students. Officials appreciate CDFA grant funding allowing them to strengthen the local economy through purchasing more produce from neighboring small farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also been able to make the Central Kitchen team a permanent part of operations,\u201d<\/strong> Lawndale ESD Nutrition & Wellness Services Director Lissette Rooney added about benefits of the funding. \u201cThis ensures that high-quality, scratch-made meals and California-grown and produced items will continue to be featured in the thousands of meals that are prepared and served each school day.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

October is<\/em> National Farm to School Month<\/em><\/a>! Join us and thousands of schools, early care and education sites, farms, communities and organizations across the country as we celebrate food education, school gardens and lunch trays filled with healthy, local ingredients.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> to view this original CDFA Planting Seeds blog post. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawndale Elementary School District (ESD) in Los Angeles County is utilizing $200,000 in CDFA Farm to School Incubator Grant funding to expand its 15-year-strong farm to school program. In particular, CDFA funding is helping the district expand procurement of California-grown … Continue reading <\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,40,12,23],"tags":[276,608,121,215,609],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-farm-to-school","category-cdfa-farm-to-school-program","category-cdfa-inspection-services-division","category-cdfa-f2f","tag-california-farm-to-school","tag-cdfa-farm-to-school-grant","tag-cdfa-farm-to-school-incubator-grant-program","tag-farm-to-school-month","tag-lawndale-elementary-school-district"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2909,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions\/2909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdfa.ca.gov\/CDFAInspectionServicesBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}