Transforming Student Lives with High-Quality Meals
International Chefs Day is recognized annually on Oct. 20 to celebrate the highly trained culinary professionals who dedicate themselves to helping others eat well. Dallas ISD is proud to have three chefs and four dietitians in Food & Child Nutrition Services to deliver wholesome meals to students throughout the year.
Chef Betsy Wooldridge, a menu planning supervisor, has spent the past six years doing just that, and she has enjoyed every day of it.
“The best part of my job is seeing the students’ excitement when they get something new on their menu,” Wooldridge said. “I come from a big Italian family in the northeast. Our culture is very food driven, and that inspired me to go into culinary nutrition. I find it really interesting, and when I got to Dallas ISD, I thought, ‘This is right for me.’”
Wooldridge works directly with the menu planning team to come up with new recipes, order food, organize taste testings and monitor data to determine student needs. But the process does not stop with them. Their decisions set off a “chain reaction that affects all these different departments,” Wooldridge said. They partner closely with Food & Child Nutrition Services’ campus-based staff and operations to ensure that students across the district are receiving the best possible meals.