Lake Havasu Unified School District’s food and nutrition services departments were among the first in the country to enact a ban on food dyes and harsh chemicals in school lunches, and other school districts are now asking for advice to follow suit.
At a board meeting in February of 2025, the district voted to ban LHUSD schools from serving foods that contain potassium bromate, propylparaben, titanium dioxide, brominated vegetable oil, and certain yellow, blue, green, and red dyes. This policy aligned with a bill that Arizona House Representative Leo Biassicci was pushing through Congress at the time to make the same bans.
By the time the bill had its first reading on the House floor in April, LHUSD had already made all the necessary changes to its school lunches and breakfasts. Biassiucci invited LHUSD’s Food Services Director, Christopher Gallaga, who works for Taher, a food service company contracted by LHUSD, to a conference in Mesa called The Vital Project. The conference had several hundred people, and Gallaga shared how the district was able to make its changes so quickly.
He says adjusting the school menu was not difficult at all, as most of it already did not contain harmful additives. He had to make some changes around the edges to ensure the district complied, such as changing the types of pickles that the district buys or making their own icing for donuts instead of buying a product that doesn’t have a certain food dye. Gallaga says the change in costs and labor is marginal, which made it actionable.
“I’ve shifted a little bit of the food cost to labor cost, but it’s — by no means — killing us in any way to do this stuff,” Gallaga said. “It was all recognizing that the customer wanted this, and that’s our job.”
Gallaga says the collaboration made it easy, in addition to the low cost. This change was a priority for the community as well as Board President David Rose, who brought Gallaga and the district’s Child Nutrition Supervisor, Anne Taffe, on as partners to gauge what they needed to make this change.
That is the main piece of advice that Gallaga shared with aspiring school board members, administrators and parents who want this shift in their own district, which is to work together with the community and district leaders in order to bring forth a change.
Gallaga says the problem is rarely that food and nutrition departments in most districts don’t want to enact these changes for healthier lunches, but that they have regulations, food caps and many other things that prevent the wheels of change from rolling. However, if it becomes clear that this is a want or need for the community, the district can move it up on the priority list.
“I always steer them back to their food service director, and I say, ‘Tell them what you’ve heard, tell them what you’ve experienced, and tell them what you’re looking for, and you can give them my contact if they need help.”
Gallaga says that Taher, which has been contracted with the district for over a decade, has measurable success showing they’ve satisfied their client while also providing sufficient meals for students. He says that while there’s been a 9% drop in students with access to food, the district has seen a 12% increase in students eating school-provided meals.
The food service company is now working on creating a company-wide policy to adjust its lunches in places where legislation is coming to change school lunches, such as Arizona, Texas and Arkansas.
District cafeterias have received feedback from students about the lunches, and they’ve even had students act as a double check on the lunch changes. Middle school students are particularly interested in the policy.
“One of the ones that blew me away was blue dye in Doritos Cool Ranch (chips),” Gallaga said. “And a middle schooler pointed out to me that it looked that has blue dye too, and I’m like, Oh yeah, you’re right,’ It’s the little powdery flecks to make it look attractive.”
The other changes that were affected by the policy affected the snacks and drinks students could buy “a la carte.” This method allows students to purchase individual food or beverages separate from school lunches through the school store and vending machines.
This is the only part of the change that has not been fully completed because the district relies on many large corporations such as Pepsi, Shamrock and Sysco for these items, and changes from the top down can take time to materialize. Gallaga says that sports drinks are the last domino to fall in terms of fully complying with snacks and drinks, and he believes that will happen soon.
In the meantime, LHUSD’s food service department has looked at other alternatives to ensure the largest amount of healthy items as possible for students, such as using a zero-calorie fitness water called Propel Water. The department is in the process of creating a fresh-fruit smoothie bar at the high school as well.
Gallaga says the district and the food and nutrition department now have to focus on how to keep this initiative moving forward and adjusting for future changes brought forth by the culture. One way policies could continue to shift is through dietary guidelines made by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, that emphasize serving high-quality protein, healthy fats, vegetables, and whole grains, and less processed foods.
These guidelines were introduced last month, but Gallaga says there have not been any direct mandates yet. He thinks a big change that could come about is in the type of milk served, as the guidelines now allow districts to serve whole plain milk as a choice for students.
Gallaga says he would love to implement more changes to make school meals healthier, but one thing to be wary of is the cost. He currently has to run $1.30 plate costs, which include entrees, fresh fruits and vegetables, and milk. If the district were forced to purchase different products, it would need money in the form of grants or higher lunch costs to do so.
He also questions what the meaning of “processed food” is, as all foods are processed in some capacity. He says Biasiucci’s legislation worked because it had specific dyes and chemicals it aimed to ban, making it easier to shift ingredients.
At the school board meeting earlier this month, Rose took a moment to commemorate Gallaga for his and his team’s work in shifting the school lunch to comply with the new policy.
“I just want to commend you for your hard work,” Rose said. “We were one of the first districts in the nation to ban harsh chemicals and food dyes at school lunches, and our team, with our heart, has done an amazing job to make that happen.”
Gallaga said it was nice to receive the praise, as most of the time his and his company’s work goes unnoticed.
“I like to say we’re the busiest restaurant in town that nobody knows about,” Gallaga said. “We spend our days often feeling completely ignored by the whole community, and so it’s always very nice to have that recognition.”