Tag Archives: child nutrition

My comments on the USDA Proposed Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

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Having spent the past 25+ years as an advocate, cheerleader and trainer for the best possible meals in schools, my commitment to healthy school food is long-standing and far-reaching. You may copy and paste any of my thoughts below into your comments. Go to https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FNS-2022-0043-52985 for details and to submit a comment. Note the comment period was extended to May 10, 2023.

At this time, I sincerely believe that the current proposal for Revisions to Meal Patterns Consistent with the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans is unnecessary and potentially detrimental, especially to those children who rely on school meals as their primary source of nutrition. As a registered dietitian, a taxpayer, a mom and a grandmother, I urge USDA to “put in pin” in this proposal for two years and give dedicated child nutrition professionals a chance to take a take a deep breath.

Nearly every person who works in school food is exhausted and many are completely burnt out. After the pandemic and the resulting disruptions in supply chains and staffing, most are just now getting their feet back on the ground. What they need is support and funding for programs like universal school meals, farm to school, nutrition education, scratch cooking, culinary training, and waste reduction rather than new restrictions that make it harder to do the jobs they love. My thoughts:

  • Keep the USDA Nutrition Standards for school meals at their current levels for the next two years. School meals served under these standards have been shown to be the “healthiest” place for children to eat in the US. There are also reports that the current standards have had a positive effect on rates of childhood obesity and overweight.
  • Please consider pilot programs. Give schools the chance to develop best practices through your own programs like Healthy Schools Initiative and other efforts for change like Scratch Works by the Chef Ann Foundation and multiple state-level Team Nutrition grants.
  • Revised Dietary Guidelines are currently in progress and will be released in 2025. It would make more sense to wait a couple of years and have the most current dietary guidance line up closely with changes in school meal patterns. While there might not be dramatic changes in the next DGAs, it makes the most sense to have them on concurrent timelines.
  • School meals are NOT the problem in terms of children’s sugar and sodium consumption. Sugar sweetened beverages, high sugar cereals, and high sodium snacks are no longer served in the school meals. Children are consuming excessive amounts of these nutrients at home and in other foodservice locations.
  • No other federal programs or foodservice locations are being asked to adhere to such strict standards. What about meals served in the USDA’s Washington, DC, cafeteria and to our service men/women in the military around the world? What about congregate meals for seniors and, most important for families, SNAP benefits?
  • Few industry partners are truly prepared to provide products that meet these patterns. R-and-D takes time and smaller, local producers may be at a disadvantage in terms of both time and cost of product changes.

Thank you for reflecting on my comments. I believe that the children of our country, especially those in low-income families who rely on school meals, would be best served by delaying implementation for two years. Many programs and initiatives are underway; I believe we should give them time to show results and define best practices in different settings.

Dayle Hayes, MS, RD, EatWellatSchool@gmail.com, Bozeman, Montana

Why Peanuts Belong in Schools

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By Dayle Hayes MS, RD, and Jeanne Reilly, NDTR, SNS

Sponsored National Peanut Board, Peanuts in Schools

There are many reasons peanuts and peanut butter can benefit school nutrition programs. Here are four of the reasons we’re convinced that peanuts do belong in schools.

Kids Love Peanut Butter

Consumer research suggests that the average American will eat as many as 3,000 peanut butter sandwiches in their lifetime. But these days, we know it’s not just the iconic PB&J that kids love. The truth is that the palate of Americans has changed and that’s true for school children too. These days, kids love spicy, global flavors and they come to school looking for meals that reflect the ones they eat at home and at local restaurants. If we want students to eat school meals, they must taste good first.

Peanut Butter is Convenient

Pre-made PB&J sandwiches have been a favorite of students for years. During the pandemic, they became an essential part of emergency meal delivery for schools across the country due to their convenience. Many directors reported that offering pre-made or homemade PB&J sandwiches increase participation. Because it is shelf-stable, peanut butter is also a food that’s perfect for keeping in stock all the time.

Peanut Butter is Affordable

Peanut products provide a cost-effective plant-based protein, meat/meat alternate option with minimal labor investment that children love. Peanut butter is affordable for school nutrition programs to purchase or to divert into processing for pre-made sandwiches. It’s also affordable because it’s versatile and can be used in many other recipes. It can help reduce the cost of a full serving of another meat/meat alternate such as yogurt when mixed to make this Yogurt Dip or served as part of a vegetarian or chicken dish using this Multipurpose Peanut Sauce. Lastly, the value of peanut butter can also be seen in its very low waste – both because it lasts a long time in storage and because students actually consume meals that include peanut butter.

Bans Interfere with Food Equity

While social justice and food equity are currently hot topics, they are not new issues for schools. The school nutrition program was established to help ensure that hungry children were fed. Banning specific foods creates inequalities from school district to school district and even within school districts. It is important to remember that peanuts and other nuts are a valuable source of nutrition for children from various backgrounds, including vegetarians (by choice and by religion). Peanut butter is also often a lifeline for children with diabetes as a snack to help manage blood sugars. Lastly, it is often a nutrient-rich food that children with sensory processing differences (like autism) will eat when they may not eat much else. Restricting access to these foods by children who can safely eat them unnecessarily creates inequalities.

Peanut Butter on The Menu

Wherever you’re serving school meals, peanut butter can help. Breakfast, lunch, snack and supper are all times when peanuts and peanut butter can fit. As we mentioned, peanut butter is a versatile ingredient that can go beyond the PB&J. Get inspired by this collection of school nutrition recipes, including Peanut Butter Overnight oats, African Peanut Soup, Multipurpose Peanut Sauce, just to name a few. If you’re still doing (or need to do again) curbside or delivery meals for students, consider how using individually wrapped or portion cupped peanut butter products can help you serve safe and nutritious meals for students. For remote meals single-serve peanut butter and individually wrapped PB&J are a value-added convenience because they are shelf stable and unitized to prevent cross-contact.

For more about serving peanut products in schools safely, visit PeanutsinSchools.org.

Want to win a peanutty prize pack? Review the content available on PeanutsinSchools.org and take this quiz now through April 29, 2022. Terms and conditions are available here.

Grace and Gratitude: 10 Truths about School Meals, Labor Day, 2021

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Some of my best friends are school nutrition professionals. On any ordinary Labor Day, I would salute their hard work, post a few photos of colorful school meals, and move on. But this is no ordinary Labor Day, especially since it is the second observance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, September 6 is also the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, a time of introspection and reflection. September is Hunger Awareness/Action Month as well.

For all these reasons, I am sharing some important news about school meals and the dedicated professionals who plan, prepare and serve them to 30 million plus children every school day. There is good news: All students K-12 can enjoy school meals at no cost during SY 2021-22, along with challenging news: Feeding all students K-12 during SY 2021-22 is no easy task. Unfortunately, there is also sad news: School nutrition heroes are being treated with disrespect – by school administrators, by educators, by families, and, in some worst-case scenarios, by their colleagues in the nutrition community.

In my opinion, the only things that we should be saying to school nutrition professionals this September are thank you and what can I do to help? Like your mom told you, if you cannot say kind things, please don’t say anything at all. Here’s why:

1. School lunch ladies and food dudes are true heroes. When COVID shut down the US in March 2020, school nutrition programs kept serving meals for hungry families – curbside drive-thrus when virtually every restaurant was closed, and many grocery stores had empty shelves.

2. School nutrition professionals are exhausted. They have served billions of emergency meals on the frontlines with little time to rest and recuperate. They have been creative with meal kits, emergency food boxes and dining in the classroom – but now they are tired, very tired.

3. Healthy school meals for all increases participation. School nutrition professionals know the face of childhood hunger. They saw it before the pandemic, and they watched food insecurity grow during COVID. They are eager to feed as many students as possible and to see meal counts go up.

4. School meal programs are struggling with staffing. Help-wanted signs are everywhere in foodservice. School food programs are short-staffed at the same time they have more students in line for meals. Scratch cooking with fresh and local ingredients also requires more labor hours.

5. Schools have serious problems getting food they order. If you’ve heard the term supply chain disruptions, you know that food products and equipment are also hard to come by. School nutrition programs are having trouble getting many student favorites in the increased amounts they need.

6. School dining spaces have strict safety guidelines. Keeping kids safe during COVID takes extra work and vigilance. Social distancing while eating and keep dining spaces clean requires extra staff time that is already in short supply. Students may also need extra TLC as they adjust to being back in school.

7. School nutrition leaders go the extra mile every day. They go to work on a holiday to take a delivery that cannot wait until Tuesday. They go in on a weekend to check a freezer alarm. They leave their office computers to go into schools to wash dishes, cut up veggies, serve meals and whatever else is necessary.

8. Contingency planning for B-C-D-E is the new normal. Even the best run programs need much more that a plan B. Directors are continually planning for the “unexpected” – school closures, staff rosters with necessary CVOID quarantining, postponed deliveries and _______________.

9. Rather than complaining, take time to help or support. Give school nutrition professionals grace for doing the best they can, with what they have, in very difficult situations. If you are in a school, take a few minutes to handout meals at a breakfast cart or to wipe down tables between classes in the cafeteria.

10. A simple “thanks” can do wonders. It doesn’t have to be complicated or elaborate. Handmade cards from students are always in style. These thank you cards from USDA Team Nutrition are easy to download and send or print out: https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/stronger-school-meals-educational-materials

Giving Thanks Every School Day

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When I started the TIPS for Schools Meals That Rock Facebook group in early 2018, I did not know what to expect. The response has been wonderful with 2,065+ members sharing recipes, resources and their successes. A recent post by Amanda Pack Warren from Staunton City Eats, SCS School Nutrition Programs, Staunton, Virginia, made me step back and reflect on the celebration of School Nutrition Employee Week. Warren pointed out that School Nutrition Professionals deserve much more than gifts, thank you cards and social media posts for the incredible job they do – they deserve professional respect and deep appreciation every day.

HERO Pack Warren 1

There’s a T-shirt (popular among school nutrition professionals of course) that says “I feed hundreds of hungry children every day with a smile on my face. What do you do?” This photo from Staunton City Eats embodies that slogan. With many thanks to Amanda Warren, I want to share my gratitude to every school nutrition professional by expanding on two points from her post: Every day these hard-working professionals deserve to receive sincere and specific thanks for a job well-done and to be seen as partners in education.

Woodland Staff

Sincere Thanks: The story behind this photo made me cry when I read the post from Kalin Bryan, Bartow County School Nutrition, Cartersville, Georgia: “A very special thing happened today at Woodland Middle School. Our central office team was delivering special aprons for School Nutrition Employee Week at WMS; she handed out the aprons and invited the staff into the cafeteria for a photo while the students were still eating. As the school nutrition staff walked out into the cafeteria, the entire lunchroom full of students started clapping and applauding them. No one asked the students to do this. They did it because they know how hard the ladies work to provide delicious, fresh food to them every school day.” I have eaten in this cafeteria and I know how hard these professionals work to plan, prepare and serve tasty, fresh meals with a smile.

Dallas Solar Preparatory

Specific thanks: While celebrating all the Dallas ISD Food Super Cooks Heroes during #FreshAttitudeWeek (coinciding with #SchoolNutritionEmployeeWeek), the department, directed by Michael Rosenberg, chose to recognize one school team with a specific award for serving with loving smiles: Our amazing Solar Preparatory School for Girls at James B. Bonham Cafeteria Crew was honored today by Dallas ISD Food and Child Nutrition Services with the Heart of Child Nutrition Award! We are extremely grateful for this team who serves each meal with love and a smile! #SolarStaffRocks.”

Stem Sensational Salad

Partners in STEM Education: School Nutrition programs and staff are the perfect partners for STEM (Science, Technology, Electronics and Math) Education using food to teach and reinforce classroom lessons. In Carrollton City Schools, Georgia, (Director Linette Dodson), Eat Healthy Eat Local Eat at Carrollton City Schools has developed delicious partnerships using school gardens, Food Corps service members and nutrition professionals: “When our CES Trojans grow enough mixed greens in school gardens to provide our kitchen with greens for 800+ STEMsational school lunch salads, it brings new meaning to Georgia Grown!” Now that’s a STEMsational example of the many ways Georgia School Nutrition Programs are creating strong educational partners with their  #ShakeItUPGA initiative!

RockledgeFruitapolooza

Partners in MATH/STEM Education: It’s clear from all the banners in this photo and from their Twitter feed (@RKES_PWCS) that the Rockledge Elementary Eagles, Prince William County Schools, VA, are focused on education excellence and fun educational activities, especially when it comes to STEM. AND they involve their school nutrition professionals in events like the Annual 3rd Grade Fruitapalooza to learn about fractions. Talk about #deliciousmath! Follow Prince William County Schools, School Food & Nutrition Services at @PWCSNutrition on Twitter to learn all about their delicious program.

I am grateful every day to every school nutrition professional across the USA. I am grateful to dishwashers, food artists, menu planners, directors and most of all those who serve hudreds of hungry children with smiles on their faces. You feed our future. 2015-10-27 I Feed Hundreds Shirt

 

 

31 Days of #RealSchoolFood: Eaten with a Smile

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At a training last summer in Killeen, Texas, a woman came up afterward and said, “I’m just a clerk in a school cafeteria. but I feel every customer that comes through my line the same thing. if you smile when you eat that _______, it will taste better.”

First of all, no one is just a clerk or dishwasher or cook or _________ in a school cafeteria. Everyone plays an important in making sure that hungry children get the food they need to succeed in the classroom. Remember, S.M.I.L.E. = Schools Meals Improve Learning Environments. Secondly, she was right! Things do taste better when we smile and think positively about them – and children are more likely to taste a new food if it is served with a smile .

I love the “12 Days of Great School Meals” campaign that Director Cleta Long is doing in Bibb County School District, School Nutrition Department, Georgia. Through her Eat Right, Be Bright Facebook page and Twitter account, Long is sharing gorgeous meals from around the district, with kudos to the her staff for their food, their decorations and their photos. What I noticed immediately were the smiling faces of the happy children.

Holiday Meal at Morgan Elementary, Bibb County Schools, Georgia

Holiday Meal at Morgan Elementary, Bibb County Schools, Georgia

“Morgan Elementary selected this handsome student to present their Holiday Meal complete with a spring of holly. The Holiday Meal included Savory Turkey and Dressing with Gravy, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Holiday Fruit Salad, Cranberry Sauce, Whole Grain Hot Roll and a variety of Cold Milk.” The student is handsome and the food looks delicious. Bibb County is offering a free breakfast and lunch to all students using the Community Eligibility Provision. For some students, this will be one of their most festive and nutrition meals of the season.

Soup and Grilled Cheese, A SUPER Meal at Hartley Elementary, Bibb County, Georgia

Soup and Grilled Cheese, A SUPER Meal at Hartley Elementary, Bibb County, Georgia

I’m now sure if the photographer posed this photo on purpose, but the student sure looks SUPER excited to enjoy his SOUP-ER meal. On the “Fifth Day of Great School Meals,” Hartley Elementary served hot house-made vegetable soup with a crispy grilled cheese sandwich,golden baked ‘fries,” fresh grapes and cold fat-free milk.

Looks like SMILES all around in Bibb County School Nutrition Department – where I’m certain the food tastes as good as it looks!

 

31 Days of #RealSchoolFood: Fresh Fruits & Veggies in the Classroom

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This is the photo that inspired today’s post. When it comes to school meals, most people think of the National School Lunch Program. Some know about School Breakfast and the recently added suppers in some low-income districts. Many fewer know about the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) that allowed Cindy Shepherd to serve this awesome vegetable to students in Parkside Elementary School, School Nutrition Program in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Romanesco, Parkside Elementary, Grants Pass, Orgeon

Romanesco, Parkside Elementary School, Grants Pass, Oregon

I’ve actually been wanting to write about Cindy for a while because she is one of my school nutrition heroes. She has been with the Grants Pass School Food and Nutrition Service Program for the last 9 years and has been Kitchen Manager at Parkside for 5 school years. Every photo and email that she sends shines with her dedication to serving the best possible meals and FFVP snacks to the 450 students (K-5) at Parkside, like these gorgeous FFVP choices from January 2014.

Pears and Purple Cauliflower, Parkside Elementary School, Grants Pass, Oregon

Pears and Purple Cauliflower, Parkside Elementary School, Grants Pass, Oregon

All of the FFVP snacks in Parkside are beautifully presented, reflecting Cindy’s love of food and her desire to make new foods appealing to young children. Here’s the program in her own words: “On Tuesdays and Thursdays we send out trays filled with both a fruit and a vegetable for the schools FFVP nutrition break, 900 servings are ready to go at 7 AM.” That’s right folks – 900 servings of gorgeous eye-appleaing fruits and veggie twice a week to children who may have never tasted, or even seen, these produce items.

Parkside FFVP Snack Examples (2012)

Parkside FFVP Snack Examples (2012)

Parkside Elementary currently serves all students free breakfast and free lunch through USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision, last year 82 percent of students received free or reduced-priced meals. According to USDA, “The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) is a federally assisted program providing free fresh fruits and vegetables to students in participating elementary schools during the school day. The goal of the FFVP is to improve children’s overall diet and create healthier eating habits to impact their present and future health. The FFVP will help schools create healthier school environments by providing healthier food choices; expanding the variety of fruits and vegetables children experience; and increasing children’s fruit and vegetable consumption.” More details on USDA’s FFVP Fact Sheet.

Clearly Cindy Shepherd is meeting those FFVP goals – and more – at Parkside Elementary. Here’s a collage of students and teachers experiencing a Cuke-a-saurus for the first time in a 2013 FFVP Snack! Have you ever had one? Might be time to try!

Cuke-asaurus (aka Horned Melon), Parkside Elementary, Grants Pass, Oregon

Cuke-asaurus (aka Horned Melon), Parkside Elementary, Grants Pass, Oregon

 

31 days of #RealSchoolFood: Pinterest is THE Place

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Every time there’s a wave of ‘bad school lunch’ photos, like #ThanksMichelleObama (which mostly backfired due to a poor choice of hashtags), people look to School Meals That Rock to respond. Now, thanks to our packed Pinterest page, we can! Thanks to lots of photos from across the USA, we now have 86 boards, 2,618 pins and 1,618 followers.

While we are proud of these numbers, we are not just trying to brag. School food Pinterest boards, like ours, can be incredibly useful when promoting #RealSchoolFood. Just today, a client wanted to know what school salad bars look like, so I directed her to our board School SALAD BARS That Rock. There she could see 40 colorful produce bars in schools from Washington state to Florida. (You could use this page to get some inspiration for upping the game on your local salad bar too!)

School Meals That Rock PINTEREST, School SALAD BARS That Rock (12-2014)

School Meals That Rock PINTEREST, School SALAD BARS That Rock (12-2014)

Or say someone asked you about the fruit choices available in schools? Our most recent pin is the incredible fruit display you see below from one of our district boards CANYONS SCHOOL DISTRICT, Utah, Rocks. This district, along with 17 others and The John Stalker Institute (Massachusetts) have boards on our page. They can pin photos directly to the board and then share their unique URL, like this one for Gooding Idaho Schools (www.pinterest.com/schoolmealsrock/gooding-idaho-school-meals-that-rock/) with their customers and colleagues.

High School Fruit Prep, Canyons School District, Utah

High School Fruit Prep, Canyons School District, Utah

If you’d like a board on School Meals That Rock Pinterest page, send an email to SchoolMealsThatRock@gmail.com WITH the email address used in your Pinterest account. We’ll get you set up with a board asap and you can pin away.

The good news is School Meals That Rocks is not the only Pinterest page in the school food game. Here are three recommendations – if you know of others that we should be following, please let us know.

31 days of #RealSchoolFood: Seasonal Food Art Made Easy

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Want to spiff up the food art on your school cafeteria lines? We have one simple tip for you: Follow the award-winning Provo (UT) School District Child Nutrition Services on Facebook and Pinterest. Known by their slogan ITSMeals at Provo School District, this district does an amazing job of using food art to make their delicious, nutritious meals even more appealing to their customers. This fresh mushroom snowman showed up on the lunch lines last week at Dixon Middle School. The scarf is a veggie too, tomato skin!

Mushroom Snowman, Dixon Middle School, Provo, Utah

Mushroom Snowman, Dixon Middle School, Provo, Utah

While ITSMeals at Provo School District features plenty of more time-consuming food sculptures, like pineapple alligators and melon witches at Halloween, much of their food holiday is quick and easy. These non-candy canes are just slices of banana and strawberries. If you staff is stretched too thin to make them for a hundred breakfasts, you can make just a few to decorate the line.

Super Simple Banana-Strawberry Canes, Provo School District, Utah

Super Simple Banana-Strawberry Canes, Provo School District, Utah

And, what’s not to love about a Grinch Kebob? Again, with limited staff time, consider asking some volunteers to help you make some Fruit Grinches – maybe a high school club or FACS class. Or perhaps your PTA/PTO or other parent group? Concerned about sticks with small children? No worries – use a plastic straw or stir stick!

Fruit Grinches on a Stick, Provo School District, Utah

Fruit Grinches on a Stick, Provo School District, Utah

So, our holiday food art tip is simple: Follow the award-winning ITSMeals at Provo school District on Facebook and Pinterest. We are easier to see what their talented staff comes up with these year!

S.M.I.L.E. for Kids: It’s 31 Days of #RealSchoolFood

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The recent, but short-lived Twitter hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama, was one more in a long series of efforts to vilify U.S. school nutrition programs. I’m not exactly sure why school meals continue to be a favorite target, but I do know that it’s now time to recognize the improvements and support the #RealSchoolFood enjoyed in thousands of school cafeterias every day.

The 2010 Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) – with new nutrition standards and revised meal patterns – means that schools are now leading the charge to improve the eating habits of American youth. And, the HHFKA is just one of many ‘ingredients’ making school meals something that lunch ladies and ‘food dudes’ are proud to serve from coast to coast. As Health Assistant Marlene Gleim says about Manager Loli Preciado and staff at Woodard Jr. High (Yuma (AZ) Child Nutrition Department), “These ladies cook as if you were going to eat in their actual home. Food made right from the heart!”

Salad Bar, Woodard Jr. High, Yuma, Arizona

Salad Bar, Woodard Jr. High, Yuma, Arizona

Does every school nutrition program deserve a five-star review? No. Is every school meal perfectly balanced? No. While there is room for improvement in some districts, bashing, blaming and pointing fingers doesn’t help. It merely perpetuates a stereotype that no longer represents the norm in school lunch or any other meal.

For the next 31 days, every day of December, School Meals That Rock will tell the #RealSchoolFood story with photos – from breakfast to supper, soup to nuts, farm to school, seed to salad bar and much more. Have concerns about food in your district? We’ll offer more specific ideas about what you can do to enhance the food served in any cafeteria.

Why? Because 20 million American children eat a free or reduced price school lunch every day. I believe that they deserve the best nutrition possible to fuel their education and their future. 

It's Only Nutrition When They Eat or Drink It

It’s Only Nutrition When They Eat or Drink It

#GiveThanks 4 #RealSchoolFood: Let’s stop bashing #SchoolLunch

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Dear #ThanksMichelleObama, Katie Couric, DoSomething.org, Mrs. Q, Jamie Oliver and all #SchoolLunch haters across the USA:

It’s time for the bashing of school meals to stop … once and for all! Why? For starters … since the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) have had a complete upgrade. Fresh, house-made meals – increasingly local and sometimes organic – are becoming the norm from coast to coast. This gorgeous #RealSchoolFood lunch from Sanders Elementary, Jefferson County Public Schools, includes #farmtoschool BBQ Chicken and Butternut Squash.

2014 Farm to School Lunch in Jefferson County Public Schools (KY)

2014 Farm to School Lunch in Jefferson County Public Schools (KY)

I am deeply saddened that not every school lunch looks or tastes this good and I absolutely want every child in America to have access to meals like this. So, #ThanksMichelleObama, if your school lunch leaves something to be desired, get off Twitter and go talk to your School Wellness Committee/Council about how improvements can happen. If your meals are really gross and inedible, contact your state office of child nutrition (list is online here) and report them. If you want the report it to me anonymous, tweet it to SchoolMealsThatRock@gmail.com and I will report them for you.

The National Farm to School Network is another really good reason to stop bashing school meals. With grants from USDA’s Farm to School Program, incredible changes in food systems are happening in communities small and large. Using 2011-12 data, the USDA Farm to School Census reported $385,771,134 in school meals dollars were directed to supporting local farmers in local communities. And we are talking the complete meal … beef, chicken, eggs, cheese, grains, fruits and veggies, plus milk that usually comes from local cows. Here’s what was on the menu when Alachua County Schools, Florida, kicked off their brand new Food Hub, established with a Farm to School grant and putting student to work growing food for school cafeterias. This looks like a menu from the latest foodie find in Chicago … but it is school lunch in North Florida!

2014 Menu for Food Hub Kickoff event, Alachua County Schools, Florida

2014 Menu for Food Hub Kickoff event, Alachua County Schools, Florida

The most difficult part of writing a blog post about school meals today is that there are so many outstanding examples … it’s difficult to choose just one or two or three. I can share hundreds gorgeous photos of #RealSchoolFood from every US state. You don’t have to take my word for it … you can see photographic evidence on School Meals That Rock Facebook page and scroll through thousands of examples on Pinterest. Seriously, go spend 10 minutes on School Meals That Rock Pinterest boards and you’ll see the deliciousness for yourself.

School Meals ROCK on Pinterest

School Meals ROCK on Pinterest