- December 4, 2025
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If you think back to the past, you might remember a time when pizzas in school cafeterias tended to be not round, but square.
Sarasota’s school district gave students of all grade levels the nostalgic treat of square pizza as the 2024-2025 school year ended.
That’s just one example of how the school district hopes to entice kids to dine with them, said Sara Dan, director of Food and Nutrition Services at Sarasota County Schools.
Feeding a district is an undertaking that involves meeting nutrition requirements, the needs of students with varying tastes, and allocating all the products and ingredients across a public school system that contains around 45,000 students.
However, Dan says a passionate team keeps the service in motion.
Dan describes the district’s meal program, which is funded independently throughout the regular school year, as a restaurant within the district.
The National School Lunch and Breakfast Program, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which sets standards involving factors like whole grain, vegetable subgroups, protein and portion size funded the program.
“We're exposing (students) to good, nutritious choices,” Dan said. “Our pizza isn't like just regular pizza. The cheese is reduced fat, the grain, it's a whole grain crust.”
However, within those requirements, there’s still room for the district to experiment, and Dan, who is one of three registered dieticians on staff, says the menu brings “inspiration from other districts, inspiration from restaurants, inspiration from just all sorts of sources.”
“We really look at the quality of everything and we and try to balance everything, taking into consideration of the cost, taking into consideration the quality, making sure it meets the guidelines. There's just a lot of there's a lot of factors involved,” she said.
She said, the program serves around 22 to 26,000 lunches and 30 to 40,000 meals per day, including breakfast, lunch, supper and snacks. Some items are ready made, while there are from scratch creations, like the macaroni and grilled cheese sandwich.
She says some schools have better participation than others, but staff are constantly looking at ways to entice students, as they aren’t required to dine with the district.
Although staff perform taste tests on the foods, the ultimate test, she says, is its popularity with students.
“Students are the best judge of anything, because they're going to be honest,” she said. “If they don't like it, they'll tell you.”
Sourcing of ingredients come from various locations through distributor Gordon Food Services.
Dan said the department is currently in the process of rebuilding some supply chains for local ingredients that were affected by the pandemic, while the Florida Department of Agriculture is “constantly” working to connect the district with local farmers.
“If we can find something locally sourced, we will definitely try to purchase it if we can afford it,” she said.
Distribution of items go throughout the district using the order guide sent with the menu. They also look at food production records.
“Say I'm making macaroni and cheese, I may need 25 pounds of macaroni, and this many pounds of cheese, and it literally tells them every ingredient,” Dan said.
The order will be checked by area managers, who ensure the location manager hasn’t missed any items, and then checked again by the operations team, before being sent to the companies which provide the food and supplies.
Dan says anyone can enjoy the meals within the school district.
“Any student within Sarasota County can participate, so we would like everybody to. That’s the goal,” she said.
The district works with parents on plans for students with medically documented food allergies.
She says some families will avoid registering for the meals because of the fear of taking food away from a child in need, but she says they need not be concerned about this.
“If student A and Student B are both on meal benefits, their two meals go to be reimbursed. It's not one over the other,” she said.
In Sarasota County, about half of students receive meal benefits, with either free breakfast and lunch, or reduced prices.
With so many students relying on the district’s meals, Dan says it’s the work behind the scenes that makes all the difference.
“Our team has so much heart,” she said. “You work with amazing people. You get to work around kids, which are wonderful, and you get to work in a district with a lot of great supportive school staff who want their kids to be successful.”
