School nutrition teams are always finding creative ways to inspire young minds through food. In this district, the crew peels back the curtain and brings students behind the scenes, inviting kids into the kitchen for fun, hands-on classes where they roll up their sleeves and cook right alongside the school nutrition team.

Whether it’s adding new, social media-trending foods to your menu, engaging students via taste tests or food shows, introducing student-led school gardens or going all out for National School Lunch Week or Breakfast Week celebrations, there are a lot of creative ways to get kids excited about participating in their school meals program. Ensuring you’re serving food that your students will like and creating a fun, welcoming cafeteria space goes a long way, but what about inviting students to experience the behind-the-scenes portion of school meals?

That idea—along with some reminiscing about fond childhood memories—is what inspired Warrick County School Corporation’s Food & Nutrition Director Shenae Rowe, RDN, to start the “Little Chefs” cooking class, a program that invites small groups of elementary students into the school kitchen for hands-on cooking lessons from the nutrition staff...