CHICAGO, December 17, 2025 — Bertrand Weber, one of school foodservice’s most prominent leaders and changemakers, has announced his retirement as Director of Wellness and Culinary Services for Minneapolis Public Schools, effective Jan 9.
The Swiss-trained former hotelier has held the position for the last 14 of his roughly 23 years in the business.
Weber said he intends to spend more time with his grandchildren, but noted in the email announcing his departure that he also intends to pursue “new adventures.”
“Those who know me well know this isn’t a step away from the work I care so deeply about, it’s simply a new chapter,” Weber wrote.
No further details were provided.
Weber, winner of the 2020 Silver Plate in the Elementary and Secondary Schools category, has long been an innovator who doesn’t mind seeing a sacred cow or two meet its end in his kitchens. His stated mission has been to provide healthful fare that tastes as good as what students eat at home or in restaurants.
He engineered one of Minnesota’s first farm-to-school programs and has been a champion of serving whole grains, undeterred by the usual objections about cost, prep challenges, and the preference of many students for more-processed versions.
Similarly, despite the volumes of food his schools’ foodservice operations need to provide, Weber has been an outspoken advocate of scratch cooking.
His quality standards are reflected in his insistence that what his kitchens produce are lunches served in schools, not some concoctions derisively tagged as school lunches to differentiate them from good food.
Weber came to school foodservice after a successful career start as a hotelier, operating showcase properties on the East Coast of the U.S. His path took a sharp turn when his son, then aged 6, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes
“I spent a year-and-a-half in the [school] cafeteria with him, helping him decide what he can and can’t eat,” Weber recalled during a telephone interview earlier this year. “I started looking at the state of our food system."
He set a lifetime goal of changing that system and making school meals healthy and delicious.
That led to a job within the foodservices of Minnesota’s Hopkins school district, followed by the move to Minneapolis’ 36,370-student network. One of his first moves was to install salad bars in 63 of what is now a 100-school system.
He has been an active participant in a number of industry associations and trade groups, including the K-12 Foodservice Leadership Council, a discussion groiup run under the auspices of IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.
Weber’s successor at Minneapolis Public Schools has yet to be named.