INDIANAPOLIS — Lunchtime begins around 10:30 a.m. at Emma Donnan Elementary and Middle School.
Inside the kitchen, Head Chef Shannon Mitchell and her team are ready.
"We are pretty excited today," Mitchell said. "We are doing a new recipe."
The culinary team finishes preparing spicy chicken sesame noodles with steamed edamame, all prepared by hand inside the school's brand-new scratch kitchen.
"Picking and cleaning kale every day," Mitchell said. "We actually serve a ton of kale here. We use it in all of our salad mixes."
The fresh-food efforts are part of a first-of-its-kind model in Indianapolis schools.
PataSchool, created by The Patachou Foundation, turns old-school cafeterias into hunger-fighting machines through high-quality, fresh foods.
"It is not just about the meal," Mitchell said. "It is more than a meal. It is about positive outcomes throughout that day, positive outcomes throughout the future."
Inside each partner school, PataSchool first transforms the old-school kitchen using restaurant-quality equipment.
"This school was great in that they had a lot of the infrastructure that is necessary for scratch cooking already," Mitchell said.
As a chef, Mitchell said her favorite tool is the tilt skillet.
"You need 40 gallons of chili?" Mitchell asked. "That is where it happens."
Then, PataSchool hires and trains a culinary team.
"We are teaching real cooking skills, culinary skills and technical skills to people who haven't really done this kind of work before in this kind of setting," Mitchell said.
Finally, PataSchool is able to serve free meals to students.
Jordan Habayeb is the chief operating officer of Adelante Schools, which powers Emma Donnan. He says the upfront cost to start PataSchool inside his building was well worth it after seeing the reaction from students and staff.
"We really wanted to redefine the meal experience so that kids were having meals that were prepared by hand here in our school," Habayeb said.
According to Mitchell, the culinary team also incorporates suggestions from students and staff to create a menu they will enjoy each day.
"At this school, people have really asked for more Asian food," Mitchell said. "Students have asked for more spicy food. We've learned that students also like sour foods."
"It is a full restaurant kitchen," Habayeb said. "I've learned quite a bit about what it takes to run a kitchen."
At Emma Donnan, about 450 kids come through the lunch line each day.
"You could eat lots of healthy stuff, and you could be really healthy. Every school could have good lunches," said Darren Riddel, a second-grader.
Riddel, by the way, approves of the "new noodles" on the menu.
"They're really good," Riddel said.
Just as lunch cleanup is happening for Adelante students, the next service is underway across town at Circle City Prep.
The school was PataSchool's first location in 2021.
"Everything that they make in the kitchen is fresh," said Crystal Prell, a member of the culinary team.
At Circle City Prep, about 300 students come through the cafeteria for breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack.
"Friday is always pizza day," Prell said. "I get asked every morning by the kindergarteners if we're having pizza, even if it's not Friday."
Before the partnership with PataSchool, lunch staff would reheat and serve pre-packaged pizzas.
But in the new scratch kitchen? No way.
"It feels really good because I remember back when we were in school, we didn't have that option," Prell said.
Prell also appreciates the lunch options as a mother, since her twin boys go to Circle City Prep.
"I love the fact that they get a healthy, balanced meal every day," Prell said.
"I think they do a great job with making lunches," said Jainicole Marie Miller-Sheets, a student at Circle City Prep. "The pizza kind of tastes like my favorite pizza, Papa Johns. I really like the sloppy joes and the teriyaki chicken and rice."
It's a similar sentiment from Emma Donnan students to their culinary team.
"You guys are awesome at cooking," Riddel said.
Currently, both schools are participating in an IU Health study to measure the success of the kitchen changes. For example, the study examines students' behavior and success in the classroom, in addition to at-home habits after school.
Moving forward, The Patachou Foundation hopes to share its results and expand PataSchool to other schools in Indianapolis.
"They spend so much time engaging with our school community to find out how to really customize it," Habayeb said.