D Magazine: The Hardest Working Cooks in Dallas

Tiny children at Julian T. Saldivar Elementary School line up in their classrooms promptly at 10 am before walking down a hall and through double doors into the cafeteria, where lunch trays that were planned months in advance are doled out.

As they sit talking quietly with classmates, that food—Chinese orange chicken, rice, roasted garbanzo beans, broccoli, a fruit cup, and milk—disappears.

Trina Nelson, the executive chef for the Dallas Independent School District, says that her team puts great effort into creating meals kids will eat. That starts at DISD’s central kitchen at the Maria Luna Food Service Facility, in southern Dallas. Breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner are made there and trucked to each school, where workers organize them quickly before the school day starts.