Inaugural Fellowship Graduate Becomes First-Time Director

Congrats on your new role! Could you tell me a bit more about this position and what drew you to it?

Richie: I’m taking on the role of Director of Student Nutrition for Redwood City School District, which is a K-8 district in Northern California’s Bay Area. It’s a great program that hasn’t previously had a director, and from what I understand, it’s been a long time coming, with the community and the parents really leading the charge. The goals of this position are to leverage more small farm and local purveyor partnerships, to invest in the training and advancement of the team, and ultimately to serve students the best food we possibly can because that’s what they deserve. 

It’s a bit intimidating, knowing that the power of the community is that strong – there is going to be a lot of visibility for this position and a lot of stakeholders involved. It’s kind of a blank canvas in a way, and I want to hit the ground running. Hopefully, my culinary background will really shine in this position. As we look to build the infrastructure to do more local sourcing, I feel really fortunate that the network of vendors I’ve worked with has expressed immediate willingness to help us get up and running. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I feel like I have a lot of really good support behind me.

You talked a bit about your culinary background – you haven’t spent your whole career in school food. Could you share more about the journey that brought you to school food?

Richie: It started as just feeding people, and now it’s feeding kids. Hospitality isn’t usually the kind of industry where you’re working at a big organization and climbing the corporate ladder. You usually move around, and it’s expected that you gather things from different types of operations. I’m a chef by trade, I went to culinary school, and I’ve worked everywhere from fine dining to small mom-and-pop shops where everything was homemade, to corporate dining, to the tech world – kind of the whole gamut. 

I was super fortunate in my first job in school food to sync up with a really progressive district and a visionary director [at Vacaville Unified School District]. I enjoyed it way more than I expected, to be fully honest. I probably came in a little over-confident with my culinary background, thinking, “How hard can it be to feed kids?” 

So I think my biggest advantage coming into this world was my culinary background. You’ll hear many school food directors say that we’re the largest restaurant chain in any respective city. We feed more people than McDonald’s. And it’s true, but we need to invest in the staff. They need the culinary skill to be able to feed the kids the best food possible.

How do you feel like the Fellowship prepared you to get your first director role?

Richie: First and foremost, it was an amazing experience. Some topics I felt like I was really confident in going into the Fellowship, and there were others that I hadn’t had a chance to do as deep of a dive into with my current job. What I’ve learned in schools is that it’s so “go go go” all the time, and there isn’t always that investment of time allocated to get familiar with rules and regulations, fiscal sanctions, audits, and things like that. A lot of it’s just learning as you go, and I’m super comfortable in that environment. 

But the opportunity to be a part of the Fellowship where there was that dedicated time and a specific agenda to follow was great for doing a deeper dive into the world of school food. Each district does things a certain way, and we were able to hear different perspectives on things like procurement, finance, or writing bids and grants. 

Even things I felt comfortable with were super enjoyable to learn more about, like management and coaching. In a leadership position, you’re constantly dealing with different personality types and stakeholders, and you have to ask yourself, “How am I going to approach a parent group that’s advocating for something? How am I going to sit and talk to the board members when I’m advocating for something?” There’s also the union and staff, and you have to approach all of those groups thoughtfully. 

I think all the Fellowship learning contributed on some level to making me feel more confident, and on the backend, there were also the relationships with the other Fellows. I’m not someone who’s too proud to ask for help, and if there’s something I need, the first thing I’ll do is reach out to one of my Fellowship colleagues who is from a larger district or has more systems in place that I can inherit and make my own.

As you said earlier, taking on a leadership role in a new district can be both intimidating and exciting. What is the north star keeping you grounded and guiding you as you step into this new role?

Richie: That’s a great question. I don’t want to just copy and paste from what’s been successful in the past, but it helps that I’m coming from a district that is so progressive and was even a model that my new district looked toward in creating this position. Having that background and knowing that my current director will continue to be a role model and support me to be as successful as possible is huge. 

Moving forward, there are going to be so many things to tackle, and I’ll need to find ways to prioritize and pump the brakes as needed. I feel like there’s going to be pressure to show the community that advocated for this some immediate progress, and I want to do that. I’m going to have to navigate and build relationships with staff who have been here for 20+ years, and there could be hard feelings with things changing.

The ultimate north star is to give the kids the best food, and to do that I’ll need to empower the staff along the way and make them more confident. I’ll say it until the day I die: so many people operate out of fear in the face of something new. So I want staff to feel confident moving forward with what the next steps are, and then hopefully that feeling becomes contagious. That way we can have fun with food and continue to make an impact, all while running a successful business. 

Success in the school world is not just about feeding kids, especially in California where we have universal meals. It’s also being financially responsible, building relationships with other departments, upgrading facilities, teaching and training, sourcing better products, and continuing to evolve and improve our program. 

What advice would you give to other food service professionals interested in advancing their careers in school food?

Richie: Come in motivated but also humble. It can be a very humbling environment because of the politics involved. It’s not just you as an owner or part of a business where you have a lot of autonomy; there are a lot more shareholders involved. 

It’s also important to understand the rules and regulations, but not be scared of them. Take them for what they are, but keep a clear vision of the direction you want to go. There are some districts who feel like they have to use prepackaged food because the label says everything that’s in it, and it’s harder to scratch cook. 

So if you want to truly do better, be ready for the fight. It’s a vertical battle. Don’t get defeated when there are lots of nos and minimal yeses. Focus on those yeses and just keep pushing. Change might not happen as quickly as you would expect, but it’s definitely possible. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share that I haven’t asked you about yet?

Richie: The school food world is crazy small. One thing I love about it is there might be some internal competition between us and some other district, like who’s making better dishes, but ultimately kids from Minnesota are not going to come out here to California for school lunch. So network as much as you can and use the amazing resources that are available. Don’t just sit in your own bubble in your office and serve what the big food companies are putting on a platter for you. That takes away a lot of the fun of this side of the industry. Instead, reach out to other districts to see what they’re doing. It’s one of the only sides of food where you’re not competing with the restaurant down the street for more business on a Friday night. We’re only better together!

Richie Wilim graduated with the inaugural Healthy School Food Pathway Fellowship cohort in January 2024. The Fellowship, a federally registered apprenticeship program, was designed to help experienced school food professionals realize their visions for change — both locally in their home districts and at a national scale. Fellows graduate from the program ready to drive and lead healthy, sustainable, and equitable school food reform. 

The Fellowship application opens each year and is open to school food professionals across the country thanks to the program’s founding partners Whole Kids and the State of California. Applications for the 2025 cohort will open in August 2024. Want to learn more? Explore our Fellowship page.