Culinary & Wellness Director helps MPS put its best plate forward

The scent of herbed, roasted chicken wafts through the Northrop Elementary School lunchroom. It’s from Kadejan Farms in Glenwood. The carrots are from Open Hands Farm in Northfield, the pilaf from Arcola Farms in Glencoe. For dessert, Johnny Pops from Elk River.

This plate wouldn’t be out of place at a farm-to-table restaurant. Instead, it’s a recent “MN Thursday” lunch served in MPS schools, a program started in 2014. The fact that this healthy, locally-sourced meal does not resemble the school lunch many of us remember is due in large part to Bertrand Weber.

The MPS Director of Culinary and Wellness Services was hired in 2012 to overhaul what students were eating. The goal? Replace the frozen, pre-packaged meals with fresh, unprocessed, whole foods made in an MPS kitchen.

“I spent time in schools and saw the impact of processed foods on our children, and that’s when I became passionate about wanting to make a change,” Weber said. “And the change we made wasn’t drastic – it was getting back to basics.”

Northrop Elementary students enjoy Minnesota Thursday meals on Feb. 6

MPS Central Kitchen

Today that means most of the 40,000 meals and snacks MPS serves each day are made from scratch in the Central Kitchen. On a recent tour of the North Minneapolis facility, a 400-gallon mixer stirred fragrant marinara sauce. Smothered burritos were being assembled while jalapenos pickled in a vat. 

“These peppers will be locally grown in the summer,” Weber points out. The hummus is freshly made and so is the salad dressing. “MPS hasn’t bought salad dressing in seven years,” he said.

Not every MPS school has its own kitchen yet, but every school has a salad bar. Weber sees this as a place that empowers students to make their own food choices and try new things. Like the watermelon radishes that took lots of kids more than one try.

Bertrand Weber serves food at a Let's Roll MPS event; Weber with Superintendent Dr. Lisa Sayles-Adams and the Street Eats food truck team; Northrop food service staff Sam Ridenour and Gloria Richardson show off their amazing salad bar

Weber has won many awards for his work, including the 2025 “Golden Foodservice Director of the Year Award” and a “Breakfast Trailblazer” award in 2024 for reducing sugar in student breakfasts. But another reward is watching MPS students develop healthy eating habits they can carry forward with them.

“It’s the right thing to do for our kids to change the food we offer them; they deserve the best,” Weber said. “Even if they don’t realize it, the decisions we make impact their health not just today but for the rest of their lives.”

Find out more about taking an MPS Central Kitchen tour.

Learn more about our commitment to True Food, view menus and read our ingredient guide at mpschools.org/cws.

Check out this video that was featured at the FAME Awards! The Golden Foodservice Director of the Year Award is the most prestigious honor given at this annual awards program, recognizing the best and brightest in school nutrition.