Elizabeth Garcia is the Associate Director of Operations in the Development Office at Massachusetts General Hospital. However, in her former life she was the Director of School Operations at KIPP Academy Lynn Middle School, where she led an operations team supporting over 1,000 students and 200 staff members. She also managed the district's nutrition program, overseeing meal service for 2,200 students daily.

She geeked out with me today about why a strong nutrition program is important and how to build and assess it.

Most Important Question to Ask: Are the students eating the food?!

Ops teams are crucial to ensure students have access to nutritious meals, so listen in to learn ways to build or improve upon a program that brings everyone around the table!

Resources:

• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) https://www.fns.usda.gov/
• Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/cep
• USDA Meal Pattern One-Pager https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/nutrition-standards/nslp-meal-pattern
• No Kid Hungry - end child hunger in America https://www.nokidhungry.org/
• Chef Ann Foundation - learn how to bring whole-ingredient, scratch cooking in schools https://www.chefannfoundation.org/

Connect with Elizabeth Garcia:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-garcia-093/
• Elizbeth said she wanted to check the box off of making this meal for the first time! https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021328-chicken-zucchini-meatballs-with-feta
• CheckBox Pro (https://www.checkboxpro.com/) - learn more about the services CheckBox Pro offers to make the work of school leaders more sustainable

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