When looking to make healthier eating choices, it’s best to go right to the experts for tips! The same can be said for getting school-aged children to eat healthier in the New Year. The tried-and-true techniques school nutrition professionals have successfully used in the school cafeteria to get students to consume healthier food options can easily translate to good habits at home. Read more…
Helping students in the school cafeteria feel like they’re eating mom’s homemade meals is an ongoing effort that York Schools Nutrition Department staff in Maine is very proud of. School cooks, menu planners and head chefs have worked tirelessly to provide menu options – from scratch-made chicken pot pies to vegetarian sushi – that are made in-house with as many local ingredients as possible. Read more…
Union County Schools (GA) showed how to get in the holly jolly spirit, celebrating their students before winter break. The district’s cafeterias were full of fun events and holiday activity, including student costumes and transformation of cafeterias into winter wonderlands. Read more…
School nutrition professionals take decorating their cafeterias as seriously as building their monthly menus – creating festive and welcoming environments for students to kick off the holiday season before winter break.
Keeping with culinary arts and nutrition education messages, many cafeterias are decked out with food or cooking themes. Bulletin boards of Christmas trees, mischievous elves and playful snowmen can be seen spreading holiday cheer. Staunton City Schools (VA) have a Chef Santa who watches over the serving line, “checking twice” to make sure students are taking the proper servings of fruits and vegetables. In the School City of Hammond (IN), a red lunch tray ornament graces the food service manager’s tree, a gift from a holiday staff ornament party.
Wazyata Public Schools‘ (MN) nutrition professionals spent the summer of 2018 overhauling the nutrition program in the district’s Culinary Express. They created new school menus, with delicious scratch-made recipes, including homemade chicken noodle and chicken wild rice soup, vegetable lo mein, spicy black beaned burgers, baked ziti and pork carnitas burrito bowls.
While revamping the Culinary Express website, school nutrition staff worked with a local food hub and marketing company to help provide more opportunities for nutrition education, including new graphics, cafeteria posters, food mascots, etc. The innovative changes to their school nutrition program were prompted by survey feedback from parents and staff.
Preparing a healthy Thanksgiving feast for 20,000 students and parents is quite a challenge, but Livingston Parish Public Schools (LPPS) in Louisiana rises to the occasion. The district staggers their holiday lunches, giving parents an opportunity to join their children for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter holidays. Read more…
Students at Hopewell Elementary School (HES) in New Jersey have cultivated an impressive Farm to School program that incorporates important school lessons while also providing produce for school cafeteria menus. Read more…
October is a special month for school food, with National Farm to School Month, celebrations for National School Lunch Week and National Take Your Parents to Lunch Day. Some districts celebrate these events on different days due to fall vacations and holidays, but the message is all the same – healthy and local ingredients are on the menu in schools across the US! Read more…
Schools across the country celebrated National School Lunch Week (NSLW) with special meals, taste-tests, guest servers, lots of fun decor and special lunchtime events. Read more…
Dade County Schools in Georgia didn’t let fall break and parent conferences get in the way of celebrating National School Lunch Week (NSLW). School nutrition and food service staff planned NSLW celebrations a week early this year, holding the annual event from October 8-12 to help educate students and parents on the importance and value of school lunch!
Staff members throughout the district wore fun apparel with this year’s NSLW theme, “School Lunch – Lots 2 Love”. Chef hats, t-shirts, aprons – everything they wore celebrated healthy school lunches and all there is to love about them! Cafeterias were decorated with Lots 2 Love messaging. Read more…
