The Real Engine of School Nutrition

Why Investing in Frontline Food-Service Workers Matters More Than Ever

Key Learnings:

• Frontline food-service workers are essential to student nutrition and school culture. Their financial stability directly improves meal quality, consistency, and student experience.
• Financial stress is one of the biggest barriers facing frontline workers today, and emergency savings programs like Sunny Day Fund significantly improve performance, retention, and long-term career growth.
• Investing in frontline workers’ economic stability is a strategic imperative for delivering better meals, stronger school communities, and a healthier, more resilient food system.

Each school day, before most people have even poured their first cup of coffee, hundreds of Genuine Foods food-service workers  are already  preparing nutritious, scratch-made meals for kids.

Cooks, bakers, dishwashers servers, and drivers translate our values into meals. They are the hands behind the more than 20 million fresh, culturally relevant, prepared meals that we serve each year - and the heartbeat of our mission.

Yet across the school-food and hospitality, these employees often face the steepest financial pressures. Early shifts, high physical demands, wage volatility

When a car breaks down, when childcare falls through, when a medical bill arrives—these moments hit especially hard. And that stress doesn’t stay at home; it follows people into the kitchen. 78% of employees with high financial stress say it impacts them at work* – and financial stress remains the top source of stress.

This is why Genuine Foods is investing directly in frontline economic stability.

Why Financial Stability Is a Nutrition Issue

If the mission is to deliver nutritious, delicious meals to students every day, then the stability and wellbeing of the people cooking those meals isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s a non-negotiable.

When frontline team members are financially secure:

• ‍Kids Get Better Meals

Less stress improves attention, craft, and consistency.

Saving for emergencies is correlated with ~7% self-assessed job performance and ~11% higher job satisfaction, a difference you can taste and feel in a school cafeteria**

• ‍Students Seethe Same Friendly Faces

Turnover is one of the most disruptive forces in child nutrition programs. Savers have 25–33% higher retention. When staff stay, trust builds, participation rises, and food waste falls.

• ‍Teams Build Long-Term Career Pathways, Not Short-Term Jobs‍

Food service is skilled, relational work. Stability creates space to grow.

When employees feel valued—with savings tools, benefits, and steady schedules—they stay longer, perform better, and are ~16%more likely to be promoted.

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Why Genuine Foods Partnered with the Sunny Day Fund

When we saw low participation in our 401(k) match program, we realized the issue wasn’t disinterest—it was immediacy. If you’re unsure how you’ll pay for rent or food during summer break, saving for retirement decades away isn’t practical.

That’s why we partnered with Lafayette Square, a mission-driven investor focused on working-class economic mobility. Through their Worker Solutions program, we discovered Sunny Day Fund, an emergency savings platform designed for real-life needs.

Here’s why this matters to frontline workers:

• Automatic savings through post-tax payroll deposits into high-yield, FDIC-insured accounts
• Employer rewards help boost balances
• Withdrawals happen ~twice a year, typically for car repairs, childcare, or medical costs
• Just $1,000 in savings can cut 401(k)  withdrawals in half
• Goal-setting is supported—even without emergencies, workers can use funds for big purchases

For a workforce often excluded from traditional financial tools, these programs close gaps that have existed for decades.

If we believe that all students deserve nourishing, scratch-made meals, then we must also believe something else: The people preparing those meals deserve stability, dignity, and opportunity.

‍Investing in their financial wellbeing is investing in the quality and consistency of school nutrition itself.

The Path Forward

When CEO Jeff Mills ledWashington, D.C.’s school food program, he helped transform it from heat-and-serve trays to one of the nation’s most recognized scratch-cooked models—serving 44,000+ mostly low-income students daily. Health improved.Participation rose. The model changed the conversation nationwide.

Genuine Foods continues this legacy across 100+ schools—and we’re going further.

Programs like Sunny Day Fund are part of a broader strategy to strengthen our frontline teams through:

• Career growth pathways
• Skills training
• Benefits access
• Leadership development

Recognition of the craft it takes to serve real food, at scale

If we want healthier kids and stronger school communities, we must start by supporting the people who make it all happen—in the kitchen.

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_{*According to the Financial Health Network}

_{** According to researchers at University ofSouthern California Center for Economic and Social Research and AARP PublicPolicy Institute}