Our Team

Gary Matthews – Co-Founder & CEO

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Mr. Matthews is a serial entrepreneur and has successfully started and built multiple businesses in the last 28 years. He has over 15 years of experience in the food service industry as owner-operator or manager of family-owned companies. He is extremely passionate about serving healthy and nutritious meals to children and is driven by our goal to nourish the minds and bodies of as many children as possible. Without hesitation, Mr. Matthews describes The School Gourmet as one of his most noble accomplishments.

 

Tia Matthews – Co-Founder & VP

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Mrs. Matthews is the wife of Gary Matthews and the Co-founder of The School Gourmet. Many of the healthy, delicious, and child-friendly recipes, as well as our methods of getting kids to eat natural food, ​were created by Tia.

 

​She was instrumental in the creation of many of our programs, including: Farm to Child, vegetarian & vegan cooking, organic gardening and other programs. Tia works extensively to grow the number of sites we serve so that as many children as possible will have access to our fantastic natural meals. ​

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Leon Harrow – Operations Manager

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Leon is a true The School Gourmet success story. He joined our team in 2014 as a delivery driver and quickly proved himself to be indispensable and an essential part of our team. He quickly moved his way up the ranks, becoming our Operations Manager in 2017. Leon manages the day to day operations and has been instrumental in shaping and executing our vision.

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Latiff McCloud – Head Chef

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Latiff has over 10 years of experience working in and managing large meal programs serving multiple schools. He specializes in menu creation and planning, as well as recipe refining and creating fresh new menu items. He is an expert in Farm to Child food sourcing, vegan/vegetarian cooking, organic gardening, kitchen management, and staff training. He’s masterful at cooking large batches while consistently maintaining exceptional flavor & quality​.

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