McAllen, TX (KRGV) — McAllen ISD is changing how it prepares school meals, moving toward scratch cooking to make food healthier and more appealing for students.

The district serves about 30,000 meals a day across its 31 schools. School officials say students often leave a lot of food on their plates.

"Kids sometimes take a plate, and they'll eat the fruit that they're taking or bites and pieces, but they do leave leave a lot of the food, right. We want them to enjoy the food," McAllen ISD registered dietitian Jazmin Perez said.

The district is testing recipes, making adjustments and seeing what works for students. The goal is to increase scratch cooking in school kitchens.

"Our goal is to increase scratch cooking. So right now we're looking at about 21% scratch cooking in our kitchens and in our district, and so we have a three-year goal of trying to increase that to 71%," Perez said.

McAllen ISD is working with Region One's South Texas Cooperative for support. Kristina Escobar leads the cooperative and says the U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging school districts to do more scratch cooking.

"There is a pledge that the school districts can opt into and can take and say, 'I pledge to implement a little bit more scratch cooking, but that doesn't always have to be full on chopping the onions and cooking product from scratch,'" Escobar said. "You can take some pre-cooked items and then add a homemade element to it."

The South Texas Cooperative works with 67 school districts, helping them navigate new regulations, share ideas and find resources to improve school meals.

Channel 5 News was there as school nutrition teams got hands-on training from Chef Daniela Villarreal, who showed staff how to take ingredients and turn them into something new.

"We really want to make it something that's very digestible, something that's very easy, something that they can take back with them, show them efficiencies," Villarreal said.

Students will taste the products and provide feedback that will help shape what eventually makes it onto school menus. McAllen ISD says the process will take time.

"We're on that journey to get there. And so it might take some time and some dedication and some trial and error, but that is our main goal to get them the best meals and that we're feeding them the best that we can," Perez said.

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