Fueling Minds: Inside the “Largest Restaurant in Town” with GPS Nutrition Services

Across Gilbert Public Schools (GPS), the Nutrition Services department operates with a scale and precision that has led Director Natalie Tenney to describe it as the "largest restaurant in town." This isn't just a play on words. In the 2025 fiscal year, GPS provided nearly 3 million meals to students, each designed to be appealing while navigating some of the most stringent menu regulations in the food industry. 

GPS works tirelessly to ensure that every meal is both nutritionally well-balanced and something students genuinely want to eat. To do this, the Nutrition Services Department conducts weekly meetings with food manufacturers to explore new school foods. Then, students are consulted to taste test and review the new food products. 

Tenney notes that for some students, school lunch may be the most significant or only meal they receive in a day, making healthy meals essential to the school day.  District Nutrition Services employees know that it is an honor to have the opportunity to feed all students who elect to participate in school meals. 

The GPS Nutrition Services Department follows the USDA National School Lunch Program’s Meal Pattern, a strict federal guideline that dictates every component on a student's meal tray.  By participating in the USDA's National School Lunch Program, GPS receives federal funds to help pay for food and labor costs, which keeps meal prices lower for district families. 

For all grade levels, the district must prepare and offer five components for lunch: whole grains, meat/protein alternatives, vegetables, fruits, and milk. The guidelines are precise, requiring minimum serving amounts for every component each week.  The vegetable offerings are further categorized into color subgroups like dark green, red/orange, and other, which can include vegetables like white cauliflower.  A rotating variety of fresh fruits and vegetables are also offered every day so students can select which items they will actually eat, reducing waste and customizing the choices to their preference.

To maintain the high quality expected of the "largest restaurant in Town" on such a massive scale, the district utilizes a food preparation method known as "speed scratch" cooking. This method involves using high-quality, pre-prepared ingredients to reduce labor-intensive steps without sacrificing the nutritional value or the flavor of the final product.  One example of this efficiency is the use of parboiled whole grain brown rice, which cooks in roughly half the time of standard brown rice. This allows GPS kitchens to provide a healthy, whole-grain option to students without the logistical hurdles of longer cooking times. Similarly, whole-grain wheat sub roll dough is ordered in to bake fresh every day for sandwiches. This dough allows the students to smell the bread baking and enjoy fresh-baked bread, while decreasing the amount of labor to prepare the dough from scratch each morning

GPS Nutrition Services also buys many clean-label products with fewer ingredients and no hidden or artificial ingredients. For example, GPS hamburger patties have only 5 ingredients:  100% Ground Beef, Onions, Sea Salt, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper. Another example of a dish that is elevated and served in a healthier version than at fast food restaurants or retail outlets is the Asian cuisine chicken bowls. Popular dishes like the General Tso’s, Teriyaki or Orange chicken bowls are either unbreaded or whole-grain breaded and free from MSG, peanuts, artificial colors, or trans fats, and contain lower sodium amounts to provide a healthier version of these meals for students.

GPS’s commitment to quality also extends to how the district sources its ingredients. GPS works with local and regional farms to ensure that cost-effective, fresh produce is being served. This local focus allows the department to supplement federally regulated staples with fresh, appealing items like homemade salsa for beef nachos. The vast majority of the fresh produce served in GPS schools is ordered from Yuma or the Phoenix area on a cooperative bid to keep prices low and quantity amounts high.

Throughout the preparation process, food safety and quality are maintained through rigorous control points. For instance, Boneless Chicken Wings must reach an internal temperature of 165°F and are held separately from Buffalo or Barbecue Sauce until the moment of service to ensure optimal texture. Food temperatures are also recorded on mandatory production records at the time of preparation and at the time of service to ensure that at no point are foods in the temperature danger zone. The Maricopa County health inspectors visit each school kitchen at least twice per school year to observe and evaluate that proper food handling and food safety protocols are being followed.

By following USDA menu regulations with fidelity, utilizing efficient "speed scratch" cooking methods, ordering clean-label ingredients, sourcing as much local produce as possible, and adhering strictly to county health codes, the GPS Nutrition Services team successfully continues its daily mission of fueling minds for learning across the district.

As a result of the GPS Nutrition Services Department and its kitchen teams' high-quality work, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) toured the kitchen at Mesquite Junior High School on April 10, 2026, with Congressman Andy Biggs, a resident of the Gilbert Public Schools area. HHS Regional Director Erin Tawney left the school pleased with what she saw, saying:

Families may apply for free or reduced-price school meals each school year at GilbertSchools.net/Meals. To learn more about the GPS Nutrition Services Department, including upcoming lunch schedules, visit GilbertSchools.net/Families/Nutrition-Services.