BARBARA JELLISON

Barbara leads a team of over 240 food service professionals in serving 27,500 students across 54 sites in a high needs district where 67% qualify for free and reduced meals. Barbara is a motivated, results-driven food service professional who most recently took on the challenges of the pandemic to test and bring organic products into the food service program. She has since continued to procure roughly 50% of food for the district from organic supplies, prioritizing CA fresh and minimally processed foods. Barbara has led her team in achieving equipment, training, and sourcing changes that are allowing them to increase the amount of fresh, organic, scratch-cooked menu items that they make in the central kitchen for service across the district. Having served the district for 22 years, Barbara’s experience extends back to culinary school and restaurant management and she continues to work to improve the food service quality and experience for students across her district. Barbara has successfully worked with both CDFA and USDA grants to help set goals for the district, link farm to school educational opportunities to the food service programming, and achieve procurement and recipe changes that incorporate fresh, local, organic products into school meals.