The Dartmouth Public Schools food service program is looking to implement a series of upgrades, including getting rid of highly processed foods, sourcing more produce locally and establishing new sustainable initiatives.

At a School Committee meeting on Monday, Jan. 6, Jeanne Sheridan, the district’s school nutrition director, gave an update on the program’s achievements and its future goals.

In an effort to get rid of highly processed foods and introduce kids to new menu items, the program will work with the John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition to teach staff members new menu items, Sheridan said.

“Our first lesson will be Asian fusion and then someone will come in to do taste testing with kids and the following week the items will be on the menu with a chef on the line cooking them,” she explained.

To be more sustainable, the schools have replaced styrofoam trays with stainless steel trays, which was funded by a $20,000 grant obtained last spring.

“We have enough stainless steel trays to service at least four of the schools,” Sheridan said.

Sheridan said that one goal is to buy local produce, which she said they’re able to do on an “absolute regular basis.”

Coastal Foodshed in New Bedford, for instance, will supply the schools with Massachusetts grown lettuce and tomatoes and Red’s Best has supplied fish to the schools from New Bedford, Sheridan said.

In the last two years, the food service program has invested over a million dollars in its kitchen amenities, Sheridan said.

This includes new walk-in refrigerators at three of the elementary schools and the middle school, additional refrigeration at all schools and new kettles at Potter and DeMello.

The program has also been able to spend money on improving infrastructure in the cafeterias, including installing new tables, painting murals and cleaning the ceiling joists, Sheridan said.

Coming next, Sheridan hopes to implement initiatives including using the cafes as training labs to introduce students to a variety of healthy foods, increase meals cooked from scratch, develop a communication plan to raise awareness of school nutrition happenings, implement a preventative maintenance plan for kitchens and explore new sustainability initiatives.

“Food is so important … for learning, and if we can make food interesting and introduce the students to food they might not get at home, all the better,” said School Committee member Elizabeth Coughlin.