Vista Unified School District is Bridging the Gap Between Students and Their Food Sources
By: Heidi Stimac
Roasted chickpeas and fresh pomegranates are items you probably don’t expect to see in an ordinary school cafeteria. But luckily for the students at Vista Unified School District (VUSD) in Oceanside, California, Director of Child…
How a farm in Maine brought their dedication to healthy school food
By Faith Akgun
Madison Public Schools in Madison, ME teamed up with their local tomato farmer to bring the Farm to School movement to the district, giving students access to fresh and healthy options every day. In 2015, nearby Backyard…
Stocking Your Salad Bar
By: Beth Collins
The winter has been very persistent where I live up in the northwest corner of Michigan’s mitten, but right around this time I start dreaming of planting seeds and gardens. Our farmers, however, have been working their winter plans since their last harvest of the…
Instead of insisting that students take one fruit or vegetable each day at lunch, West New York School District (WNYSD) students willingly fill their lunch trays with healthy produce. Occasionally, Sal Valenza, the WNYSD nutrition services director, will point to a student’s tray and ask: “Are you sure you’re going…
Vegetable and Fruit Placement for your Salad Bar
By: Beth Collins
In our last blog we discussed salad bar location ‒ where it’s placed within the lunchroom. Before the hot line? Integrated into the service line? After the hot line? Before the POS? Every school site is different and presents different challenges…
An interview with Food Service Director Tom Vance
Lakeside School District in Hot Springs, Arkansas can boast about their salad bar success led by food service director Tom Vance. His career began as a culinary specialist in the navy, followed by a stint crafting food menus for county jails, then finally…
When a district is first considering reconfiguring their menu planning to include a salad bar (aka “harvest”, “veggie,” “fruit and veggie,” and “garden” bar) the concept alone is very attractive. Why? The salad bar assists in meeting the vegetable subgroup requirement, it offers that coveted “student choice” we always talk…
An interview with Linda Waters, Food Service Director at Gilmer County Schools, Georgia
Six years ago, food service director extraordinaire, Linda Waters, kicked off her mission to serve up fresh fruits and veggies to Gilmer County Schools in Elijay, Georgia. This was not new territory for Waters, since she’d spent the…
Revolutionizing your lunchrooms with salad bars is a complex process from the initial idea to the actual implementation. What many of us may not be fully prepared for is the students’ lull in salad bar participation after the initial excitement wears off. So, just how do we build and sustain…
From School Gardens to Slice-and-Dice Competitions: Addison Northeast Food Service Cooperative (ANFSC)
Number of kids enrolled at ANFSC: 1,600
Number of schools in district: 6
Percentage who are free and reduced: 40%
Number of local farms worked with in a given year: 10
Kids’ favorite local produce: Berries, apples, carrots,…
