Pre-packaged food will soon be off the menu at RISE Southeast Raleigh Charter School. The K-8 public charter school, which serves nearly 500 mostly minority, low-income students, is poised to launch a scratch cooking food pilot when the new school year starts in August. RISE is partnering with the nonprofit Food Paradigm on pilot design and implementation, with students’ meals to be prepared on-site by a chef in the school’s kitchen.
An ambitious undertaking, the scratch cooking concept initially elicited skepticism from Dawn Arthur, RISE’s executive director.
At an early Food Paradigm event, “there were very few K-12 leaders in the room,” she said. “It stood out to me that this was a bold idea, but one that would be very difficult to execute.” Undeterred, Food Paradigm came back with “stronger alignment and the right partners,” Arthur said…