What We Do
We transform how school kitchens operate, so change lasts.
SFIA equips school kitchen staff with the tools, training, and operating systems to shift from processed food to scratch cooking at scale, creating sustainable and long-term change in how communities are nourished—within the existing budget.
The SFIA Operating Model
SFIA’s model is built from more than two decades of hands-on scratch-cooking transformation with existing kitchen teams, integrating four elements that must work together for change to hold:
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Redesigning workflows so scratch cooking is feasible, efficient, and sustainable within institutional realities.
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Equipping frontline staff and managers with the skills, confidence, and accountability to lead change from within.
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Aligning procurement, local sourcing, and budgeting so operational shifts are supported—not undermined.
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Working shoulder-to-shoulder with kitchen teams to solve problems in real time, not from a distance.
Together, these elements form a replicable system, not a one-off intervention.
How We Work
SFIA operates as an embedded ally, working shoulder-to-shoulder with existing kitchen teams and institutional leadership to guide the transition from heat-and-serve dependency to scratch-cooked food, while staying within budget.
How Change Happens
SFIA works with institutional kitchens to change how their systems function.
Our engagements typically include:
Immersive, in-kitchen training
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Leadership development for directors and kitchen leads
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Workflow redesign grounded in daily operations
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Ongoing problem-solving alongside frontline teams
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Our work focuses on the hardest part of food systems change.
We help schools to actually change how they cook, lead, and operate—every day.