ALLENTOWN, Pa. — When Adrianna Rodriguez was an underclassman at Building 21 High School, her peers would go hungry during the school day instead of eating the cafeteria lunches, she said.
“It was just like boring, not cool food — just something you would be like, ‘Ugh, I don’t want that,’” said Adrianna, 17, now a senior at the school.
But in the past year and a half, that’s all changed thanks to Gina Giarratana, Allentown School District's director of child nutrition services.
“Everybody knows that hungry kids can’t learn. That’s why we feel it’s so, so important to make sure that we’re giving them good options.”Gina Giarratana, Allentown School District director of child nutrition services
When Giarratana joined ASD in summer 2023, she made it her mission to revamp school meals and get the district's more than 16,500 students to eat them.
“Everybody knows that hungry kids can’t learn,” Giarratana said. “That’s why we feel it’s so, so important to make sure that we’re giving them good options.”
Giarratana’ s efforts have included using student focus groups for feedback on meals, robust food providers to offer fresh produce and grant funding to innovate her department’s processes.
These strategies have paid off.
More school meal participation
Last school year, ASD served 982,714 breakfast meals and increased student participation in its breakfast program by 28.3% over the 2022-23 school year, according to data provided by Giarratana.
Through November of this school year, ASD served 382,458 breakfasts and increased student participation in the program 13% compared with the same time frame in 2023.
The lunch program has also seen growth in recent years. In 2023-24, ASD served 2,022,124 lunches and increased student participation 7% from the year before.
As of November, ASD served 735,464 lunches this school year and saw student participation in the program increase 5.3% from the same months in 2023.
To bolster student interest in school meals, Giarratana increased the availability of culturally diverse dishes on ASD’s monthly menus and added more variety.
Items added since 2023 include chicken drumsticks, chicken broccoli Alfredo, yogurt parfaits and pupusas — a Central American food consisting of tortillas that can be stuffed with meat, beans, cheese and vegetables.
“Recently, we’ve been getting tacos — really good quality tacos with sour cream and everything,” Adrianna said.
Giarratana launched both a taco salad and walking taco offering in ASD cafeterias that have been big hits, she said.
They're options with vegetables that kids also enjoy, she said.
New food doesn't go unnoticed
For the Chinese New Year in January, the district will serve a new chicken and dumpling stir fry item.
And in April for National Empanada Day, ASD will bring back a whole-grain empanada that Giarratana created with the company MASPANADAS to be compliant with school lunch standards.
The new offerings haven’t gone unnoticed by students.
“I feel like I’m in a Chinese restaurant. It’s very good.”Talin Florez, a fifth-grader at Ramos Elementary School
Emmanuel Larrama, a Trexler Middle School eighth-grader, said there’s more variety in the school cafeteria in recent years. He said he’s happy to have more options than just sandwiches.
“They’re giving us [bigger] portions, and they’re giving us more stuff instead of the same things over and over again,” Emmanuel, 14, said.
“There are choices, which is kind of cool,” said Talin Florez, a fifth-grader at Ramos Elementary School.
Talin, 11, said her favorite school lunch item is orange chicken.
“I feel like I’m in a Chinese restaurant," she said. "It’s very good.”
Helping Allentown families save
Getting students excited about school meals isn’t simply about boosting district metrics. Not only will students be able to learn better with full bellies, but their families will save money, too.
Under the federal Community Eligibility Provision, Allentown School District and other high-poverty districts provide free breakfast and lunch to all students without them needing to fill out an application.
“For a lot of our kids, we’re feeding them. That’s why I feel like it’s so important that we’re offering so many different things for different kids’ palates and what they’re used to and what they want.”Gina Giarratana, Allentown School District director of child nutrition services
According to state data, ASD had 16,602 students enrolled during the 2023-24 academic year, and 90.9% of them were economically disadvantaged.
As of December, there were 16,700 students enrolled in ASD, according to the district, but state data for economically disadvantaged students was not yet available.
Giarratana said free school meals let ASD families spend their dollars elsewhere, helping families make sure they have enough funds to provide meals for students when they’re at home.
“For a lot of our kids, we’re feeding them,” Giarratana said. “That’s why I feel like it’s so important that we’re offering so many different things for different kids’ palates and what they’re used to and what they want.”
Fresh produce is on the menu
Helian Baez Matias, a fifth-grader at Ramos, said his favorite school lunches are the chicken drumstick and bacon cheeseburger.
“They’re making different stuff, and it tastes better every time,” said Helian, 10.
Helian also had honeydew melon for the first time at school last year.
“I was happy whenever they were giving out the honeydew,” he said.
Susie Beller, head cook at Ramos since 2019, said students often learn about new fruits at school.
“When I had cantaloupe on [the menu], they were like, ‘I’ve never heard of it.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, let’s do a little information trip here.’”
Beller said Giarratana prioritizes making a variety of fresh produce available to students.
“We’ve had past leadership [who] did not want to work with certain fresh vegetable and fruit providers because it is another truck, it is another contract, it is another page of work,” Beller said.
But that’s not the case with Giarratana, who makes sure fruit and vegetables are of “good quality,” and not the provider’s “rejects,” Beller said.
“I always say, ‘She’s the muscle.’ She’s made it happen, and it’s wonderful,” Beller said. “It’s wonderful that she cares.”
Grants help innovate food department
Under Giarratana, ASD middle schools have gotten to try different apple varieties once a week, thanks to a $9,993 Farm-to-School grant from the state Department of Agriculture and a partnership with Frecon Farms in Boyertown, Berks County.
The grant is among five Giarratana has been able to procure for the district since she started. Together, the grants total more than $36,400.
“She’s very forward thinking. She cares deeply about our students — about their overall well-being. She goes above and beyond just the calling of her normal job.”Allentown School District Superintendent Carol Birks
Through two $5,000 Pennsylvania School Breakfast Expansion grants, ASD has been able to buy breakfast carts and refrigerators to increase breakfast participation and offer more meal options at Building 21 and the Sonia Sotomayor Dual Language Immersion Academy.
With a $15,000 grant from the School Nutrition Association, ASD was able to get sealer machines for packaging food, an insulated transport cart for hot food and insulated transporting bags for hot or cold items.
And a $1,500 grant from Capital BlueCross lets Giarratana buy new food products for students to test out in focus groups.
“Any additional funding can help keep our department self-sustaining,” Giarratana said.
ASD’s nutrition department does not depend on the district’s general operating budget, and instead mainly relies on federal reimbursements for eligible meals.
ASD Superintendent Carol Birks said Giarratana’s grant work has let the district's food department get creative with its offerings and try out new ideas.
Birks praised Giarratana’s innovation and her inclusion of students in decision-making processes.
“She’s very forward thinking,” Birks said.
“She cares deeply about our students — about their overall well-being," Birks added. "She goes above and beyond just the calling of her normal job.”
