Welcome to The Lunch Box!
The nation’s trusted resource for scratch cooking in schools, featuring recipes, tools and operational knowledge.
Procurement Pop-Up: California Beef
We’re bringing together CA beef producers to inform our community of school food operators about their facilities, products and mission.
CA Pre-Apprenticeship Application Now Open!
Gain experience in healthy scratch-cook school food programs through our CA Pre-Apprenticeship program!
Supporting School Food Programs in 2023
Hear from our CEO Mara Fleishman as she celebrates our team’s recent achievements and reflects on our collective goals to support school food programs in 2023.
Be a Part of School Food Change!
We’re hiring individuals who are passionate about childhood nutrition, food systems, and school food.
The Lunch Box
Welcome to the largest online resource for scratch cooking in schools! A program of the Chef Ann Foundation, this site features step-by-step guides, tools, and other resources to help schools improve their meal programs and convert to scratch-cooking.
By cooking from scratch (with whole, fresh ingredients), school food programs can provide delicious, nutritious meals for students. Research has shown scratch-cooking to have incredible benefits, like increased meal participation, improved student attendance, and decreased risk of diseases like diabetes.
SCALE platform for self assessment
We’ve built the first free-access digital platform that offers the first comprehensive self-assessment focused on enhancing school meal programs and increasing scratch cooking.

You have a wealth of valuable information for school districts to use. Thanks for all you do in providing schools with the tools they need to provide nutritious meals to our students.
Great tips and recommendations here to help implement change in our public schools. I am a substitute school nurse in Northern NJ with three kids in public schools and have been searching and searching for ways to help implement change for increasing plant-based foods in school lunches. This is a little slice of gold I have found in your site. I thank you very much!
Your website is impressive and I love the huge emphasis on nutrition education. I think this is a key component of our salad bar success!
New Content Areas
With this latest redesign of The Lunch Box, we’ve added a ton of new content for school food operators. Check out our newest additions below!


New Content Areas
With this latest redesign of The Lunch Box, we’ve added a ton of new content for school food operators. Check out our newest additions below!

Featured New Recipe
Chicken Pozole with Tortilla Chips
Hear from CAF’s Director of School Food Operations, Brandy Dreibelbis, how this home recipe was adapted for school meal service.

Featured New Recipe
Chicken Pozole with Tortilla Chips
Hear from CAF’s Director of School Food Operations, Brandy Dreibelbis, how this home recipe was adapted for school meal service.
Program ImpactThe Lunch Box provides many digital resources and tools for school food professionals. Online registration also helps us track impact and support funding initiatives. |
23,012
site users registered |
103,131
downloaded resources |
5,569
school districts registered |
Program ImpactThe Lunch Box provides many digital resources and tools for school food professionals. Online registration also helps us track impact and support funding initiatives. |
23,012
site users registered |
103,131
downloaded resources |
5,569
school districts registered |
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