{"id":481110,"date":"2026-10-01T02:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T02:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481110\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T02:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T02:12:12","slug":"san-diego-unified-makes-the-typical-school-food-a-thing-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/481110\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Unified makes the typical school food a thing of the past"},"content":{"rendered":"

When students in the Mission Bay Cluster returned to their campuses for the 2026-27 school year, they were greeted by an expanded food menu.<\/p>\n

It was redesigned to reflect \u201cthe district\u2019s commitment to providing students with meals they enjoy while supporting learning, wellness and academic achievement,\u201d San Diego Unified School District officials stated in a press release.<\/p>\n

Pacific Beach Middle School seventh grader Kolton Hughes agrees.<\/p>\n

\"PacificPacific Beach Middle School seventh grader Kolton Hughes holding his lunch. (Cyril A Reinicke)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen kids have a better lunch they will learn better in the afternoon,\u201d Kolton said, adding his favorite entrees are the orange chicken and rice, hamburger and salads.<\/p>\n

Within the last five years a huge shift in food and nutrition services was embraced by SDUSD.<\/p>\n

\u201c(In 2021), Governor Newsom signed a landmark piece of legislation into law, making California the first state in the nation to implement a universal free school meal program for all public school students,\u201d said Leslie Luna from the district\u2019s Food and Nutrition Services program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2024, San Diego Unified\u2019s school lunch program was rebranded as \u2018Sandi Coast Cafe\u2019 with a commitment to source, prepare and serve tasty, nutritious meals that students enjoy and want to eat, staff takes pride in, parents trust to nourish their children, educators value to fuel their learners and our community celebrates for its excellence,\u201d Luna said.<\/p>\n

\"PacificPacific Beach Middle School sixth grader Aurora Sesenbach with her lunch. (Cyril A Reinicke)<\/p>\n

Pacific Beach Middle School sixth grader Aurora Sesenbach agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved last summer from Minnesota. I love the meals at PBMS,\u201d Aurora said, adding her favorite is chicken strips with onion rings. \u201cThe food is so much better here than at my previous school.\u201d<\/p>\n

PB Middle School cafeteria manager Robin Lujan said they serve approximately 75 to 90 breakfasts and 250 to 300 lunches each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cPopular breakfast items are pancakes and mini waffles,\u201d Lujan said. \u201cPopular lunch items include chicken tenders with onion rings and hot dogs with Toastitos whole grain honey BBQ chips.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Back to School Night at Mission Bay High, parents were able to sample Sandi Coast Cafe lunch menu items.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted the parents to sample our new menu items,\u201d said Jolan Rakowsi, MBHS cafe manager. \u201cWe are very proud of the variety and freshness and unique flavors of the foods we offer our students each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MissionMission Bay High junior Zara Hedley selected the chicken entree. Also offered were fresh fish tacos and fresh pork carnitas burritos. (Cyril A Reinicke)<\/p>\n

The high school students have also noticed a change.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last three to four years the food has definitely improved for us at school,\u201d said Mission Bay High senior Brandon Melendez. \u201cThe freshness, the fruit, the variety \u2026 I really like the chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n

MBHS freshman Caleb Vega said \u201cthe quality, the variety and freshness of the food available at Mission Bay is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LunchLunch at Mission Bay High is a busy time. Four serving lines provide quick service every day. (Cyril A Reinicke)<\/p>\n

Sandi Coast Cafe serves approximately 95,000 meals daily across 205 campuses. This includes 35,000 breakfasts, 51,000 lunches and 9,000 suppers. Over the current school year, the department is preparing to serve more than 17 million healthy meals.<\/p>\n

While breakfast and lunch have become regular offerings at schools, a supper program is less common. The supper program is offered in conjunction with the PrimeTime Program for students in transitional kindergarten through eighth grade. The program provides an engaging environment where students can strengthen their academic skills and participate in fun enrichment activities in art, science, music and athletics while improving social skills.<\/p>\n

Luna said funding for such an ambitious food and nutrition program \u201ccomes from the blending of federal and state dollars. California\u2019s Universal Meals Program builds on the federal National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program and rests on three pillars: a state mandate requiring districts to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students; a requirement that high-poverty schools participate in a federal provision (the Community Eligibility Provision); and state reimbursement funding allocated by the Legislature to cover the program\u2019s cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur supper program is funded by the Child and Adult Care Food Program,\u201d Luna added.<\/p>\n

This school year, students aren\u2019t just enjoying new menus \u2014 they\u2019re helping create them.<\/p>\n

\"PatsyPatsy Stallings brought her great-grandchildren, kindergartener Micah Coste and first grader Mylene Coste, early to Sessions Elementary so they could eat breakfast before their classes. (Cyril A Reinicke)<\/p>\n

Two student-developed recipes will be featured in cafeterias across the district, showcasing student creativity, district officials said. The new student-inspired entr\u00e9es were developed in response to feedback from the district\u2019s nutrition survey.<\/p>\n

The Hot Honey Chicken Bowl with Fried Rice, a brand-new entr\u00e9e developed by culinary students at Morse High School, will be offered on secondary menus. Joining it is Ava\u2019s Avocado Salad, created by a Correia Middle School student during a previous student recipe contest. The recipe has been brought back from the archives and refreshed for this school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood brings people together, and we want every student to feel cared for when they join us for a meal,\u201d said Alicia Pitrone Hauser, executive director of Food and Nutrition Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When students in the Mission Bay Cluster returned to their campuses for the 2026-27 school year, they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[56541,74,76,75,188652],"class_list":["post-481110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-pacific-beach-schools","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-unified-school-district-meals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}