Our Nutrition Department is very excited to offer our students a wider variety of fruits and vegetables as part of their school lunch. Recently, we updated our salad bar offerings in accordance with federal requirements and we want to ensure our parents are aware of the changes.
Beginning in 2012, the Department of Agriculture required that school lunch programs offer a fruit or vegetable option at the salad bar. Students choose either a serving of fruit or a serving of vegetables, or a combination of both each day. A serving is considered a half-cup of the fruit or vegetables. Students may choose to take more, but a half-cup portion is the minimum serving amount. When a student does not meet the minimum requirement, we ask them to please go back to the salad bar and choose more of an item that they will eat so they have at least a half-cup.
In addition to the nutritional benefits, salad bars may lower food waste by allowing students to take only items they will eat. The transition to this new process seems to be going smoothly. Our students enjoy the fresh items each day. Thank you for helping us encourage our students to eat a variety of rainbow-colored foods!
