Brownsville ISD event stresses locally grown, cooked from scratch meals

Brownsville ISD held its annual Food and Nutrition Services Food Show on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Gary Long | The Brownsville Herald)

The Food and Nutrition Services department at Brownsville ISD showcased its scratch cooking initiative on Tuesday during an annual food show at which locally sourced menu items received good reviews from students at a select group of schools.

BISD has been cooking more school meals from scratch ever since receiving a grant from the Colorado-based Chef Ann Foundation in 2023.

The FNS Food Show is an annual event usually held at the Brownsville Event Center at which vendors showcase non-locally sourced menu options that generally are not cooked from scratch.

This year, BISD held the event at the smaller CAB Cafeteria at 708 Palm Blvd.

Shakera Raygoza, of Terra Preta Farms in Edinburg and Isiah Chavez of the BISD FNS department, were serving chicken pozole as students passed by in a serving line that went from farm to farm.

“A lot of them are really interested,” Raygoza said. “We present it in a way that they know. They go, ‘oh pozole. This is what my grandma makes. And then you incorporate some fresh cabbage that’s organically grown from our farm and they’re very open to trying the vegetables in something that they already eat.”

OBST Family Farm in Alamo served watermelon slices. The Hour Farm in Weslaco and Rio Fresh Inc. in San Juan also were represented.

Jackie Cruz, the director of Food and Nutrition Services, said the department decided to feature local growers who contribute to the scratch cooking initiative, rather than the manufacturers of ready-to-heat products usually featured at the show.

She said because of the Chef Ann grant BISD is transitioning to more fresh-cooked items and sourcing food from local growers.

After students passed through the serving line, they headed across the street to the BISD Wellness Gym, where various physical fitness activities were being offered.

Superintendent Jesus H. Chavez said activities on both sides of the street were intended to promote healthy living and lifestyles.

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