Labor cuts push an Oregon district from scratch cooking back to premade meals
Eugene School District 4J's nutrition services team is working with about a quarter fewer full-time positions this school year after about $2.4 million in budget cuts for 2026-27, and has gone back to mainly premade meals from outside vendors instead of the in-house scratch cooking it built in 2019. The district says the program cost more to run than meal reimbursements and sales covered. It ended all-you-care-to-eat seconds (a second meal is now charged), kept salad bars and serves about 9,500 meals a day; support services director Jill Cuadros says the team still buys clean-label products that are low in sugar and fat.
Why it matters for directors: Scratch cooking runs on labor hours, so before staffing is cut, decide which items stay scratch-made and write clean-label and sugar specs into your vendor bids.
Original source: KVAL ↗