iBites Podcast – S2E9 – Hannah Carroll

Shannon FitzGerald interviews Hannah Carroll, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who leads food services for a K–6 district of roughly 4,000 students in Santa Barbara County. Hannah describes a centralized production model — a full scratch-cooking central kitchen supplying nine sites through mobile serving lines — that has driven lunch participation to around 75% and breakfast participation above 50%, largely by adding Second Chance Breakfast. The conversation centers on three strengths of Hannah’s program: student-driven menu planning (including a 4th-grade student advisory council called SNACS), strategic use of USDA Foods as base ingredients to offset the cost of higher-quality local items, and a staff culture built on trust, hands-on presence, and culinary pride. She emphasizes that scratch cooking transitions succeed when directors build relationships first, start with familiar and manageable recipes, and work side by side with staff rather than directing from the office. Hannah also shares practical approaches to food waste reduction — daily lunch counts from classrooms feeding directly into production adjustments — and a creative solution of batch-freezing excess scratch-cooked food during the school year for use in summer programs. The episode closes with rapid-fire highlights, including her stress-relief strategy of gifting staff a “dishwashing day” redeemable by her, and her consistent message to new professionals: return to your why.