The San Diego County Office of Education’s Juvenile Court
and Community Schools now has a nutrition services team that will help to lower
costs and increase options for student meals.
Four food services field assistants were hired in July and two more will start in August. They will serve food at court and community
schools across the county, ensuring compliance with nutritional and food-safety
guidelines as well as freeing up educators to spend more of their time
teaching.
“I have a really good team,” said Jerry Smith, food services
program supervisor. “I would consider them the best in the county at what they do.”
The team includes Magdalena Lujano, Felipe Mendoza, Lucero
Diaz-Kennon, Kim Garcia, and Elaina Brown.
Smith said he’s excited about putting together the team
that’s going to help make serving food more efficient and reliable. JCCS has
never had a food services team before and has contracted with local school
districts to provide meals.
“I’m looking to offer the change and selection that the kids
are asking for,” he said.
Part of that change is a pilot program he started in January
for the nearly 200 students at JCCS’s Metro facility in downtown San Diego.
In the future, Smith would like to work with the San Diego County Office of Education's Career-Technical Education team to create more culinary arts
programs to teach JCCS students skills that will help them get jobs in hotels
and restaurants.