When LIFT Enrichment partners with school districts, the goal is simple: make culinary education accessible, engaging, and impactful for students.
Santa Ana Unified School District, located in Orange County, California, serves approximately 40,000 students across 54 schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools.
With roughly half of students not speaking English as a first language, Santa Ana teaches an inspiring curriculum to help their students excel in school and beyond. By high school, students can explore speech and debate, computer science courses that include coding video games, and entrepreneurship programs that teach real-world business skills.
Putting Student Nutrition First
Nutrition is a central part of Santa Ana Unified’s commitment to student wellness.
Through its Nutrition Services department, the district provides free breakfast and freshly prepared meals to all students. This amounts to approximately 12 million meals each year. The meals are thoughtfully prepared, reflecting the district’s belief that healthy food supports academic achievement and overall well-being.
As Santa Ana puts it, preparing healthy meals is “how we show our commitment to student wellness every day.”
They also run a Farm to School program, which pairs schools with local farms, helping kids get the best nutrition possible.
Expanding Learning Through Culinary Education
With such a strong emphasis on nutrition, the next step felt natural. Beyond serving healthy meals, the district wanted to give students the opportunity to learn how to prepare them themselves.
In the summer of 2024, these goals became a reality when the school district brought on LIFT Enrichment to provide afterschool cooking classes as part of their Expanded Learning Program. With a limited budget, they opted to run afterschool cooking programs in 3-6 schools every semester.
The goal was simple: provide students with hands-on culinary education.
A Strong Fit for Middle and High School Students
The afterschool culinary program was a huge success, particularly because of how adaptable the classes were for kids of different ages.
Often, enrichment options cater primarily to younger children. Santa Ana’s Expanded Learning program, which also caters to middle and high school students, required an appeal to older students.
That, really, is the beauty of cooking classes. With a few tweaks of the lesson plan, the same recipes can be tailored for younger and older students alike. Younger children obviously need much more guidance and rely on chief teachers more. Older children can be much more independent, with the chef teacher spending more time talking about the nuances of cooking techniques and nutrition.
What Santa Ana Unified Has to Say
Here’s what Dody Bustos, site manager at SAUSD had to say about the cooking program:
“I’m happy to share that the program has been a wonderful experience for our students. They are truly enjoying the culinary sessions and consistently look forward to the days we host the class.
The students especially appreciate the independence the program provides. Being able to cut, assemble, and prepare their own ingredients has been both exciting and empowering for them. They also enjoy tasting the dishes they prepare and frequently comment on how delicious the food is. The lessons on healthier food options have been a great learning opportunity, and they are having fun exploring new ways to make nutritious meals.
We have also received positive feedback from parents, who have shared that their children are enjoying the program and talking about it at home.”
Bringing Culinary Education to Your District
If you are interested in bringing an afterschool culinary program to your Expanded Learning initiative, you can book a free call with our team to explore what is possible for your district.
Previous Newsletters:
The almost magical benefits of “ordinary” family dinners, Behind the scenes of filming recipes from LIFT Enrichment’s cookbooks, LIFT Enrichment and New York schools are teaching hundreds of children how to cook