iBites Podcast – S2E8 – Jeannie Riley

What does it really take to move a school meal program from freezer-to-oven to scratch-cooked? In this episode of iBites, host Shannon FitzGerald, PhD, RDN sits down with Jeannie Riley, School Nutrition Director for RSU 14 in Windham and Raymond, Maine, for an honest, inspiring conversation about scratch cooking from the ground up.
Jeannie shares how a community visioning grant sparked the idea of hiring a permanent district chef — a role that’s been transforming her program for 12 years — and how she built staff buy-in, sought culinary training, and navigated the very real challenges of making real food work at volume for 3,300 students across six schools.
Her advice for anyone wanting to start? Baby steps. One recipe, one success at a time. Her definition of scratch cooking for students? “Delicious, real school food fuels students for learning.”