Jieun Pando likes food and knows a lot about it, which serves her well in her job as director of School Nutrition for Ector County ISD.
Pando has been with the nutrition department since September 2013.
“I started as a school nutrition dietitian first and then became a coordinator and then assistant director, and then director,” Pando said.
The coordinator position was reclassified as assistant director. She has been director since December 2021.
Previous director Brandon Reyes, now an executive director of district operations, left the job in November. Pando was named interim director and her new title became official Dec. 7.
Her experience with the department helped her in the director’s chair, but there is still a learning curve that has been challenging and exciting at the same time.
“I was over kitchen operations. I deal with managers and the kitchen staff, so since I moved to the director’s position I’m kind of realizing there are much more things going on, especially the budgeting and purchasing. That’s something that I’m trying to learn, and I want to be good at …,” Pando said.
Another thing that helped is that Reyes involved everyone in the department operations. Pando said she wants to follow suit. She added that Reyes still supports her.
“Dr. Jieun Pando has been part of our school nutrition team for over nine years. She has served as our dietitian, coordinator, and assistant director. She is a thoughtful and decisive leader. Our students’ best interests are always at the forefront of every decision she makes. We are very excited about her new role as the director and have the utmost confidence in her ability to serve our students well,” Reyes said in an email.
During the pandemic, there were a lot of remote students so participation in the meal program was a little low.
“But this year, I guess everybody came back, so even compared to before pandemic, we are serving way more meals — about 800 breakfast meals per day more and 1,500 lunches per day,” Pando said.
The district this year serves about 17,000 breakfasts a day and 18,000 to 19,000 lunches a day.
“Our school nutrition department is the largest restaurant in Ector (County),” Pando said.
Pando, who is from Seoul, South Korea, has lived in Odessa since 2000.
After college in South Korea, she wanted to come to the U.S. to pursue her education. She earned a master’s degree in food and nutrition from New York University and a doctorate in food and nutrition from Texas Tech University.
She also is a registered dietician. She and her husband, Eugene, have two children.
Asked what got her interested in the field, Pando said she likes food.
“Food is the most important part of our lives. It keeps you healthy; it gives you more energy. It really kind of sustains you,” Pando said.
She added that she is very adventurous about eating.
“I came from Korea, but like I’m pretty good at cooking Mexican food. My husband is Hispanic and I know how to make menudo and enchiladas and stuff like that. It’s because I’m interested. I want to learn,” Pando said.
ECISD has around 32,000 students and the School Nutrition Department has about 200 employees. Pando said she never thought about managing something as large as the School Nutrition Department.
“It’s a lot of responsibility. … I had a good mentor … I was happy with the dietician job … but as he was getting me involved with a lot of operations, I really liked it … just managing people … So that’s a big part of the job, too,” Pando said.
She previously worked for Medical Center Hospital as a dietitian and at Fiesenius, a dialysis center.
“… Food service was not my forte … but I thought I’m going try. When I came the first day, I called my husband,” and said she had made a mistake because it was completely different from clinical nutrition, Pando said.
“School nutrition has so many different rules and regulations that I … never realized,” Pando said.
On a related note, Pando said the department has two projects. One is a revamp of the serving lines.
“We are going to have a new serving line for 27 schools and hopefully we can get that done before the end of this year and most elementary (schools) by summer and then some elementary and middle schools by December,” Pando said.
They will also replace the steam tables, which is aimed at making the food crisper.
“That’s one project. The other one is the cafeteria graphic decor. We’re going to paint the serving area and we’re going put school signs with an LED light behind,” Pando said.
This is designed to make the decor brighter and happier.
“… The pandemic in a way has been pretty difficult, but it also gave us this opportunity. Because of the increased participation and because of the waiver, we are getting a higher rate of reimbursement. So they gave us funds to reinvest back to our schools and for you know, for the kids, so we’re very happy about that,” Pando said.
