More vegetables, please

By Cindy Landrum  

DECEMBER 1, 2011 6:05 p.m. (0)

And when parents ask him for recipes of the healthy menu items served at 11 Greenville County elementary schools, he smiles again.

“We don’t have to be too sophisticated. We just need to make sure it’s good,” said Jones of the healthy lunch menus that earned the school district a Golden Carrot Award from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a national nonprofit organization that promotes healthy diets.

Plans call for adding 20 additional elementary schools to the healthy lunch program next year, Jones said.

Gone from the menu are school cafeteria staples such as chicken nuggets, hot dogs and pizza.

In their place is a menu that focuses on minimally processed, mostly made-from-scratch entrees with an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and less salt. Each day a vegetarian entrée is offered, and usually about 10 percent of the students select it, Jones said.

“One of our vegetarian entrees is pasta marinara with whole grain noodles. To the kids though, that’s not vegetarian it’s spaghetti,” Jones said.

A recent menu had barbecue pork on a whole grain bun, whole grain baked pasta, steamed green peas, vegetable soup, apples from Hendersonville and a salad bar with romaine lettuce.

Augusta Circle Elementary cafeteria manager Tammie Yates said the amount of food thrown away by students might have increased slightly this year, the school’s first with the healthier menu.

She said the vegetarian chili wasn’t a big success, but chicken tacos and other Mexican entrees have gone over well. The veggie frittata is growing in popularity with the students, she said.

Each cafeteria has a no-talking policy for the first 10 minutes of each lunch period and that’s when most food is consumed.

“If it’s not eaten then, it probably won’t get eaten,” Yates said.

Promoting the new items is key, Jones said.

“The kids are accepting of it, but old habits are hard to break,” he said.

Yates said cafeteria workers now cook from scratch 75 percent to 90 percent of the time.

“It takes a bit longer, but the results are worth it,” she said. “Last year, we opened boxes, put it in pans, put it in the oven and put it on the line. It’s easy to serve chicken nuggets, but you don’t have the same pride as you do when you put out pasta or homemade soup.”

Yates said participation in her school’s lunch program has decreased from last year. But Jones said 60 percent participation at the school with lower numbers of students who qualify for free or a reduced-price lunch is still high.

Yates said some students who never bought school lunches before are purchasing meals every day with the menu change. She said she expects more students to buy school lunches as they become more familiar with the new menu and as the thrill of bringing their own lunch in new lunchboxes wanes.

Patrick Wagner, a chef at Greenville Tech, trained cafeteria workers at the schools with new menus. He follows up with the staff and critiques the food and the line.

“Presentation is so important to us,” Yates said. “If we’re serving a product that doesn’t taste and look good, we’re defeating the purpose. If a child is trying a vegetable for the first time, we don’t want to overcook it.”

Twenty elementary schools will be added to the program next year. Jones said the district hopes to eventually have the new menus in each of its elementary schools.

“Growth has to be careful and controlled,” he said. “We’re starting at elementary schools because we feel we can have more of an impact there.”

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