AURORA, Colo. -- While kids are on summer break, school cafeteria workers are going back to class. Their goal is learning how to cook healthy, large volume meals from scratch.

"Our goal is to teach them professional culinary training, a year's worth, in five days," said Venita Currie, a program manager for LiveWell Colorado.

At Rangeview High School in Aurora, food service workers received training focused on fresh ingredients, and a fresh perspective on feeding school children.

"To bring real food back into the world in this country, that's the goal," said Andrea Martin, the head chef trainer.

The program puts typical cafeteria meals like pizza and hamburgers on the back burner, while the staff prepares whole foods from scratch. The entrees include barbecue chicken, teriyaki chicken and enchilada casserole.

"I think this is a social justice issue, I think it's really important that we put good food in front of the children in this country," Martin said.

The training is a statewide initiative of LiveWell Colorado, whose mission is reducing obesity. Over four weeks, the program has reached nearly 100 school food service workers from 36 districts.

"If you make your meal, you are the master of your menu," said Currie. "You know you don't have to use preservatives or dyes, you know how much salt, sugar, calories you are putting into your meal."

But is it practical for feeding hundreds of kids?

"I hear that question all the time, 'It's going to be more expensive, it's going to be more time consuming,'" said Martin. "In this training they learn all the systems they need to run their operations so it's not more time consuming. We are confident that it does not cost more to cook this way."

After a busy morning preparing the food, the cooks got to enjoy the fruits of their labor. It's healthy food even children will eat.

"Absolutely phenomenal, home cooked, there's nothing like it," said Susan Dimaggio, an Aurora Public Schools food service worker.

This training is just one program being implemented by Aurora Public Schools to improve school meal nutrition. Last year the district piloted the "Go, Slow, Whoa" program, created by LiveWell Colorado and 7NEWS. It makes understanding nutrition easy for kids by color-coding food. This coming school year the program will expand from one elementary school to nine.