By Lena Foster
Chef Trina Nelson knew she was passionate about cooking when she made her first meal at the age of eight. One morning, she wanted to switch it up from the normal cereal and milk her mom left out for her and brother, so not only did she decide to cook eggs, sausage and toast, but she was raving about it all at school.
Her boasting led to her teacher calling her mother, and although Nelson was unsure of her mother’s response once she got home, she was surprised her mother told her to cook again. That evening, her mother was blown away by what Trina produced; that planted a seed for Nelson to continue to expand her culinary knowledge by watching cooking shows like “Yan Can Cook” and “Julia Child”.
“I learned a lot from watching these cooking shows. Not only how to cook simple stuff, but I also learned how to explain what I’m doing and how to teach what I’m doing and how to have that presence when I’m talking about food,” Nelson said.
Nelson graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in management, and after working in managerial positions for a couple companies in Chicago, she ended up being relocated to Texas and working for Brinker for more than five years. Here, she got the opportunity to teach culinary night classes at Dallas College El Centro Campus. From there, she fell in love with teaching and got a job working for the Dallas Independent School District.
The Chicago native would go on to become the first Black executive chef for Dallas ISD, exposing students to a variety of foods and educating them on essential nutrition and diet choices. Nelson’s initial interest in the culinary arts and her ability to explain the process of food-making gave her the building blocks she needed to get involved with dietary education for students in the district.
As the executive chef, Nelson works closely with the menu team and dietitians to create recipes that students want to eat. In order to achieve that, she goes straight to the source: the children. By letting the students taste test dishes and give their feedback, Nelson gets to understand how to implement nourishing food choices that she knows they will enjoy.
“I get their opinion on what I think they might like before we just force it on them,” Nelson said.
Using ingredients that have been procured for the district, Nelson works on recipes daily that align with the nutritional guidelines and parameters she’s given while introducing new foods to students. She also constantly works to tweak recipes that students may have been reluctant to in order to expand their palates.
For example, in an effort to show third grade students locally farmed products, Nelson brought in a hydroponic farmer, or someone who grows plants with nutrient-rich water rather than soil. The farmer showed the students a whole pineapple, which some students have never seen, nonetheless, enjoyed eating. Nelson also revamped the stroganoff recipe after she noticed that it was an unpopular dish amongst schools.
Inviting technological advancements to the school kitchen has also opened up the door to limitless recipes for students to learn and love. The district recently incorporated a program where food experts like Nelson are able to train DISD culinary staff to use new smokers to smoke raw beef to use for menu items. But, even with the new technology, Nelson still depends on student taste tests and feedback before putting anything on the menu or moving forward with any recipe.
Showing what foods are available in this world can take a student to newer heights when it comes to their diet and health; it can spark excitement and the desire to understand more about what foods can be accessed. Nelson aims to increase student participation in food consumption, which is the fuel she uses to implement programs that could help students expand their minds when it comes to what foods and food production methods exist. “The goal for me is to get as many kids wanting to eat as possible,” Nelson said.
Students may have initial hesitation with healthier options, but associating those new items with items that they already love can make all the difference. Nelson started a smoothie program in the schools, and although students expressed disinterest at first, telling them that the smoothies were like ice cream increased student participation in this breakfast initiative. Nelson looks for creative ways to introduce these foods to all Dallas ISD student’s breakfast, lunch and sometimes after school meals, being mindful of the diverse student population of the district.
Dallas ISD’s diversity is something put into consideration for Nelson when it comes to creating recipes. Combining creativity with demographic consciousness can ensure all students are getting fed and are gravitating towards those dishes that could help them connect to their heritage and upbringing, which can make them more inclined to trust familiar dishes, and then, eventually, to try new dishes.
For Nelson, it’s essential to comprehend the demographic differences that make the district as diverse as it is. In order to feed over 144,000 students in the district, Nelson understands that it’s not a one shoe fits everybody type of thing when it comes to menu planning and decision making in the school kitchens.
“When we’re planning these menus and recipes, we have to keep all of our children in mind when doing it. And so we have to be sure that we’ve got things on our menu that the kids are kind of familiar with, and also in the same sense, respecting the differences in cultures,” Nelson said.
In order to build that bridge between familiarity and food, Nelson goes about presenting the food in ways that students can recognize culturally. For example, Nelson would associate Swiss chard with collard greens during a time like Black History Month in order to bridge that gap for Black students and connect those dots to produce an interest in learning more about the food item and its cultural ties.
“You have a school in North Dallas, like where you have a large population of vegans, because you’ve got a large population of students that are from the Middle East or from India. And so keeping that in mind, why not introduce them to some cuisines that, you know, a large population of their students will recognize and want to eat?” Nelson added. “And so, you have to be knowledgeable, and you have to care about the differences in the culture and background of our students.”
Nelson continues to work to change the conversation surrounding school lunches. Breaking down stigmas and misconceptions placed on these school means has been an ongoing mission for her. With hopes of enlightening students on the importance of diverse foods and their benefits to their health, Nelson reprograms students’ minds on different foods by ensuring multiple elements are up to par, including staff training and understanding of quality food production. Coming from COVID-19 standards with using prepackaged foods, Nelson maintains that staff members should put more intention behind fresher ingredients. She heavily stresses the importance of making dishes from scratch, given how some students may not have easy access at home to the fresh meats, cheeses and vegetables they need.
Food deserts in Dallas prove to be a challenge for those seeking easier access to those ingredients needed to create these healthier meals. In a fast paced society like this, it’s convenient to just pick up a McDonald’s meal or a TV dinner, and to make matters worse, in some underserved communities, there’s a lack of grocery stores and markets that can provide those tools and foods needed for more home cooked meals. Nelson cites how more access to these better food items is needed for students that are in these food deserts, especially in order to sustain that desire for a healthier way of living.
Students will go back and teach their parents about what was exposed to them just from those school meals, and that could be the catalyst needed to create a cycle of eating fresh and getting healthy.
“We’re teaching our kids who are gonna be the next generation of leaders in our country. We’re teaching them now how to cook, how to prepare a meal, and not just depend on Burger King or McDonald’s or things like that,” Nelson said.
