Newark Schools Now Serve Scratch-Cooked Meals to 41,000 Students Weekly

All 65 schools in Newark Public Schools now serve scratch-cooked meals at least once a week. The plan is to expand to daily service. Over 41,000 students across New Jersey’s largest school district get these meals.

RWJBarnabas Health worked with the district and Brigaid to place trained chefs in school cafeterias. These chefs make meals from scratch using fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. They cook alongside existing food service teams. The program started last year and reached the weekly milestone on April 30.

The district has nearly 34,000 students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals — 84% of all enrolled kids. Students who depend on these programs might get up to half their daily calories at school during the academic year, according to the Food Research & Action Center.

“For many of our students, school meals are not just a supplement — they are a primary source of daily nutrition,” said Roger León, Superintendent of Newark Public Schools, according to RWJBarnabas.com. “With the majority of Newark students relying on school meals as a primary source of nutrition, we have a responsibility to ensure the food we serve is as healthy and nourishing as possible.”

Brigaid’s chefs spent 2025 checking kitchen equipment across all campuses. They looked at what each school had. That led to upgrades, new menus, and hands-on training sessions for cafeteria workers.

Healthy eating connects to better grades, improved mental health, and lower risk of chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease later in life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 13 million children nationwide can’t get nutritious food on a consistent basis, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“This work is about more than changing recipes, it’s about changing systems,” said Chef Dan Giusti, Founder and CEO of Brigaid. “By placing chefs throughout the district to work alongside school kitchen teams, we are showing that together through collaboration and partnership, scratch-cooked, nutritious food at scale is achievable.”

The State of New Jersey funded the initiative through an appropriation. It’s part of RWJBarnabas Health’s Our Healthy Communities program, which has invested more than $151 million into community health initiatives beyond traditional medical care.

“Ensuring students have access to fresh, nutritious meals is a critical investment in both public health and academic success,” said Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin.

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