Thankful for Students, Schools Provide Holiday Lunch Celebrations
Ask anyone about their favorite school meal as a child and the Thanksgiving turkey lunch usually comes to mind. The love of the turkey day meal remains, but much has changed about what it looks like today. Schools have created new recipes and ways to incorporate turkey in their meals, with a variety of trays, bowls, dishes or curbside pickup containers needed to deliver holiday traditions. Through soups, pot pies, sandwiches, whether carved, sliced, roasted, cubed or diced, turkey is still the star of the show.
Port Clinton City Schools (OH) served a delicious apple crisp this year as part of its holiday meal. 
Pasco County Schools (FL) sliced fresh roasted turkey as its meal centerpiece. 
Thanksgiving school meal assembly line at Staunton County Schools (VA). 
A traditional Thanksgiving meal created by school nutrition staff at West Allegheny School District (PA).
Thanksgiving school meal sides include everything from whole grain rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potato mash, roasted potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, salad, sweat peas and yams, to seasoned corn, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, broccoli and fresh fruit.
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Farm to School Comes to Life at Dover-Eyota Schools
While many schools have adopted a Farm to School program, Dover-Eyota Public Schools (MN) has gone above and beyond to offer their students fresh, locally-sourced school meals. Using apples from their own school orchard to make homemade applesauce and sourcing beef from a local farm to offer freshly-made hot dogs and hamburgers are examples of how they celebrated Farm to School Month, which wrapped up last week.
Now Playing: School Lunch!
The 2020 National School Lunch Week theme Now Playing: School Lunch! put a spotlight on nutritious and delicious menu items that student love. Whether school districts celebrated with fun messages and activities included in curbside pick-up lunch bags or created immersive and socially-distanced red carpets in their cafeteria, school nutrition staff took the effort during this unique school year.
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Lunchtime May Look Different, But School Meals Are A Student’s Best Friend
School lunch and the way it’s served during National School Lunch Week may look little different in 2020, but schools are still working hard to introduce new menus items and get kids excited about eating health meals at school. Students in Lansing Central School District (NY) know first-hand how school nutrition professionals have risen to overcome challenges to adapt meal service to various in-person and remote learning methods during the pandemic.
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Curbside Lunch Pick-up Doesn’t Stop National School Lunch Week Celebrations
National School Lunch Week (NSLW) looks pretty different this year for Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools (NC) as K-5 students won’t be starting in-school classes until October 19. The district has been running a curbside meal pick-up operation to coincide with distance learning, but they haven’t given up serving nutritious and delicious meals for their students! ECPPS is offering prepared meals that are shelf stable or heat-and-eat selections for middle and high schoolers.
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2020 Regional Employees of the Year Celebrated As Frontline Heroes
With each smile or kind word, cafeteria employees make a difference in children’s school days. This spring, those smiles are hidden under masks, but they are still there. The national, non-profit School Nutrition Association (SNA) received hundreds of nominations of stellar school nutrition professionals and awarded six Regional Employees of the Year. The award was created to recognize outstanding school nutrition employees who positively influence the quality of school meals through exemplary customer service. Meet the 2020 winners: Read more…
Managers of the Year Recognized For Dedication to Students
Adjusting school foodservice to emergency feeding operations following COVID-19 school closures, managers of school cafeterias are using their multitasking skills to ensure students have access to healthy meals. In recognition of their outstanding hard work and dedication, the national, non-profit School Nutrition Association (SNA) has awarded the 2020 Regional Managers of the Year, considered the highest honor a school nutrition manager can earn. The award recognizes cafeteria managers who have demonstrated dedication and ingenuity to improve his or her school meal program. Read more…
National Award Recipients Excel to Meet Evolving School Foodservice Needs
To coincide with School Lunch Hero Day, the non-profit School Nutrition Association (SNA) on Friday announced its annual Director, Manager and Employee of the Year winners. These awards recognize the dedication and outstanding commitment of school nutrition professionals from around the country that go above and beyond in service to their students and school meal programs. While schools have closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of these foodservice heroes have continued their mission to feed America’s children in difficult situations – one curbside pickup, bus drop-off or home delivery at a time. Read more…
More Heroic Than Ever Amid School Closures
It may look a little different this year, with school closures and empty cafeterias, but the celebration of School Lunch Hero Day (SLHD) on May 1, 2020, has never been more important. Among the frontline heroes in the COVID-19 pandemic, school nutrition professionals have continued to step up to the crucial task of feeding America’s children.
Schools Shoot for the Stars to Celebrate Breakfast
School districts around the country celebrated National School Breakfast Week (March 2-6) last week. This year’s galactic theme, “School Breakfast: Out Of This World,” supplied schools with plenty of creative ideas to highlight the importance of school breakfast and help make students mornings a little brighter!
This year, school nutrition and food service departments created cafeteria decorations and wore out-of-this-world themed outfits!
