School lunch isn’t what it used to be. When most of us we were kids, we weren’t lucky enough to try a tasty beef fajita pita at lunchtime, and we’re willing to wager the tomatoes and corn we consumed didn’t come from local growers.
But recently, with the health of the students in mind, Culinary Express director Mary Anderson of Wayzata Public Schools has spearheaded a revolution of sorts, all in the name of healthy school lunches—no more frozen pizza burgers here.
“We need to encourage students to make good nutrition choices,” Anderson says. We need to take a look at what’s on the menu, creating a balanced meal and embracing the local concept.”
One of Wayzata’s most successful programs is the Farm2school program, which has been in place for several years under different names. Simply put, it’s the use of produce from local growers in school meals.
Anderson says the program was spurred in part by the “5 a Day” campaign, a national campaign in the early 2000s, supported by the Center of Disease and Control, to increase fruits and vegetables in school lunch programs. But she also thinks it’s important that kids understand where their food comes from. Currently teachers play downloadable videos about where the food comes from. The Wayzata school district is looking into having local farmers do demonstrations or talk about their farms for the kids. Additionally, the program helps keep money circulating in the local economy, and Anderson means local: “We have beets from Anoka, sweet corn from Stillwater,” she says. Another benefit is environmental, because apples trucked from say, Delano, require less fuel than peaches flown in from California.
Sunset Hill Elementary principal Karen Keffeler says her school has embraced the Farm2school program. Keffeler likes that it provides students with a fresh food item to try each month, a new recipe twice monthly. Lunch staff encourage students to take a bite, and even if they don’t like it, that’s OK. “You never know what you might like until you try it,” she says.
This year Anderson plans to expand the program, offering more featured local items on a monthly basis. “We’re taking a look at things like corn on the cob, wild rice, bison and local maple syrup,” she says. For example, in November, squash and pumpkins are the featured foods of choice. And in December kids get to try dishes containing roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes.
In addition to the Farm2school program in grades K–12, elementary students will participate in a brand-new lunch program called Table Talk. Replacing last year’s Global Neighborhood program, Table Talk consists of testing new recipes at lunchtime and asking the kids for feedback. (Think: Thumbs-up or a thumbs-down approval rankings.) The approved recipes will be posted on the district website for students and their families to try at home. “We will be developing a whole meal or menu for families based around the main entrée and provide a grocery list as well,” Anderson says. And novice chefs (including parents) have nothing to worry about. All of the recipes are simple and don’t require a lot of ingredients. “We want to encourage people to eat at home and eat as a family,” she says.
So which are the crowd-pleasers, you might ask? Cheesy chicken salsa, tomato tortellini soup and chicken bruschetta are some student favorites. Baked rigatoni continues to be a standout as well (with pasta, spaghetti sauce, low-fat mozzarella and beef crumbles, how could you go wrong?). However, the hunt for the winning recipes is no easy feat. “We go through a lot of recipe books and websites,” Anderson says of the menu-making process. “Some in particular lend themselves [to kids] better than others.”
While there are no hard numbers on how successful the programs have been in terms of getting kids to eat better and be more locally conscious, Anderson says the response has been good anecdotally; her staff―whom she says still happily go by the name “lunch ladies” (or in some previous cases, “lunch lady men”)―say they are not seeing the items ending up in the garbage.
Some items do present more of a challenge than others. “Part of it is making it look nice. We always use good-quality produce and try to do a fun color assortment with vegetables.” They also try to offer dip with vegetables; “it tends to entice them,” she says.
Keffeler hopes that students and parents can learn to make healthy choices when it comes to food after participating in the lunch programs. Keffeler adds that the Culinary Express team has worked very hard in the past five years to make healthier school lunches. “Typically, the reputation of school lunches is that they are high in sodium and fat,” she says. But as the ever-growing list of healthy options proves, Wayzata schools are taking more than a few steps in the right direction.
Naturally, Anderson is thinking ahead for new ways to improve the Culinary Express program. Wayzata schools have signed up as a school site for the Michelle Obama “Let’s Move” campaign (letsmove.org), which entails partnering with a local chef to bring healthier foods into schools. “We would love to work with a chef to develop our recipes and work on the new proposed standards,” Anderson says. “We want to get ahead of the game.”
To learn more, head to http://www.wayzata.k12.mn.us/wps/ then click on “Lunch Menus” in the “Quick Links” tab.
