Welcome to The Lunch Box!
The nation’s trusted resource for scratch cooking in schools, featuring recipes, tools and operational knowledge.
2024 Healthy School Food Pathway Fellowship Now Open
Become a leader in scratch-cook school food operations through our Healthy School Food Pathway Fellowship.
Ingredients for Healthier Kids
Enroll in our Ingredients for Healthier Kids course through the School Food Institute to learn how to remove harmful ingredients from school menus.
Back to School Tools
Check out our latest blog that highlights NEW resources and tools to set you up for success this school year.
Welcoming our Newest Advisory Board Members
Meet our distinguished advisory board members who support scratch cooking, farm-to-school, and food education efforts in schools.
Updated Emeregncy Feeding Resources
We’ve updated our Emergency Feeding resources to help schools prepare for emergency situations.
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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