Building a Better Tray

How School Districts Are Cooking with Healthier, Higher Quality Proteins 

School meals can be delicious, nutritious, and made with high-quality ingredients. Across the country, school food professionals are finding creative ways to move beyond entrees centered on industrially produced, processed meat and cheese toward entrees featuring whole and minimally processed foods, diverse plant proteins, and high-quality animal proteins. 

What’s Inside 

This resource from Friends of the Earth and Chef Ann Foundation profiles eight entrees from school districts across the country – from Alaska to Virginia, from rural to urban, and from fewer than 150 students to more than 16,000. These school nutrition teams are changing what they purchase, how they cook, and what they serve to students, proving that healthier, higher-quality proteins can work in school cafeterias. 

Inside, you’ll find examples of districts: 

• Putting plant proteins at the center of the plate with delicious meals featuring beans, lentils, tofu, and other plant proteins 
• Serving higher-quality animal proteins produced without routine antibiotics or added hormones and, where possible, using regenerative, organic, grass-fed, or other higher-standard production practices 
• Creating meals students enjoy while navigating the realities of cost, staffing, nutrition, cost, kitchen capacity, procurement and student preferences 
• Rethinking procurement strategies to prioritize less processed foods, diverse protein sources, and higher quality proteins 
• Cooking more from scratch to reduce reliance on processed foods and make the most of whole, high-quality ingredients 

Building a Better Tray translates these districts’ experiences into practical strategies that school nutrition professionals can adapt to their own communities. Whether you’re looking to introduce more plant-based proteins, cook more from scratch, improve procurement, or simply serve more nutritious and delicious entrees, these districts offer lessons and ideas worth trying. 

This resource was created as a companion to Beyond the Nugget: The Hidden Health Risks of Industrially Produced Animal Proteins—and the Path Toward Better School Lunches, a report from Friends of the Earth and Chef Ann Foundation examining the health concerns associated with industrially produced animal proteins in school meals and highlighting pathways toward healthier, higher-quality school food.