In the summer of 2019 with the financial support of The Life Time Foundation, Wellness in the Schools gathered a group of school food professionals and organizations committed to supporting school districts in cooking school meals from scratch. Together, we innovated and left that summer committed to working collectively to support aspiring Food Service Leaders from around the country to cook from scratch. With that goal, ScratchWorks, was born – with not one logo, but with the collective expertise of a small group of committed individuals.
Seven year later, ScratchWorks, for and by school food leaders, is a collective of school food professionals committed to supporting school districts in cooking school meals using whole, fresh ingredients that provide students with the nutrition they need for their educational success, health, and well-being. We have built a network of over 250 participants and 190 districts operating as a decentralized autonomous organization and held two national Gatherings in Austin, TX, and Minneapolis, MN.
ScratchWorks is guided by two main pillars:
1. Policy and Advocacy: advocating for policy that supports scratch cooking.
2. Community Building: supporting a connected network to further peer-to-peer learning.