Announcing the Powered by School Food Professionals Awards!

Are you a School Food Professional who is working to create healthy, delicious and scratch-cooked meals for California students? We want to celebrate your program!

Through the Powered by School Food Professionals Awards, we’re uplifting the skill, innovation and creativity of school food teams who are improving school food throughout California. By creating good and good-for-you recipes that use fresher ingredients and flavors kids love, School Food Professionals are working to make change happen in schools across the state — one tray at a time.

The Powered by School Food Professionals Awards will name six winners whose submissions go above and beyond in transforming school food in the following categories:

  • Best Original Recipe: Creatively using ingredients, flavors and cooking techniques to surprise and delight students.
  • Best Scratch-Cooked Adaptation: Transforming a classic school recipe typically made with prepackaged or processed ingredients into a delicious, scratch-cooked dish.
  • Best Farm To School Recipe: Using fresh, seasonally available ingredients from local farms and producers. 
  • Best Take on a Culinary Trend Recipe: Creatively blending contemporary flavors, culinary techniques or trending ingredients in a surprising and modern school food recipe.
  • Best Culturally Relevant Recipe: Creating dishes that authentically represent or are meaningful to the cultural or ethnic heritage of a portion of the student population.
  • Community Choice Recipe: Voted on by students, parents and staff, this award spotlights the school food program that has demonstrated the greatest commitment to cooking up better school food. 

Powered by School Food Professionals Awards winners will receive an all-expenses-paid trip for two representatives from each winning program to Los Angeles, where they will be honored at a celebratory event that spotlights their recipes in front of an audience of high-profile media and culinary and lifestyle influencers. Winning programs will also be recognized with a personalized award that memorializes their meaningful contributions.

Submissions are easy, so we invite professionals working in California K-12 public school food programs to enter today! To enter, complete the entry form here by December 1, 2024. 

No purchase or payment is necessary to enter or win, and there is no limit to the number of entries. All entrants must be residents of the state of California and must be 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. 

Winners will be chosen by a panel that includes school food experts. School community members, including parents, students and staff, will be eligible to vote for the Community Choice Recipe category. Finalists will be notified in December 2024. 

For more information on the Powered by School Food Professionals Awards, who is eligible and how to enter, visit the submissions page here.

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