Enough with the jokes about school cafeteria food.
Yes, they got their start for good reason. But these days, through a combination of more selection and better nutrition, many school districts have found ways to make lunch decidedly more palatable.
Westerville City Schools is no exception.
The district’s middle and high schools have adopted a “create your own” style of service, akin to the type seen in fast-casual restaurants such as Chipotle and Piada. The cafeterias feature a variety of different specialty bars – barbecue, Italian, Asian, hamburger, burrito, mashed potatoes, pasta, chicken tenders and breakfast – operating on a two-week rotation.
With the ability to customize your own meal, the possibilities for combinations are multifarious, and students value this kind of variety, says Karisa Dennis, food services director for the district.
“The choices we make, in terms of the food we choose to serve, are a collaborative effort,” Dennis says. “The menu is a whole departmental concept, and features input from the entire food services department. We also make sure to adjust to our students’ preferences.”
Students’ favorite? Per Dennis, it’s the hamburger bar. Each student starts with a whole-grain bun and a choice of standard beef burger or mushroom burger, then has the option to add American cheese, white American cheese, shredded romaine lettuce, sliced tomatoes, turkey bacon and even onion rings.
The burrito bar – and the associated walking taco bar, for those students who prefer their lunch unwrapped – offers brown rice and choice of toppings, which include shredded cheddar cheese, queso blanco cheese sauce, shredded romaine lettuce, diced tomatoes, diced onions and taco sauce. For the Asian bar, brown rice, stir-fried vegetables and a vegetable egg roll accompany a choice of tangerine, New Orleans Mandarin, sweet chili Thai or sweet and sour cherry blossom chicken. Mini pancakes, mini French toast or mini waffles may be served for breakfast with turkey sausage links and hash brown sticks.
Among the priorities of the food service department are fresh ingredients – nothing is canned, Dennis says – and color variety, a concept that calls for a more balanced diet through a balance of colors in fruit and vegetables. The middle and high schools have their own salad bars, which have proven popular among students.
Though menus there are more concrete, elementary schools aren’t left out in terms of choice: all of them have fruit bars.
Leah Kunnath is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
Recipe:
Crunchy Hawaiian Chicken Wrap
Courtesy of the USDA
- Ingredients
- 1 cup light mayonnaise
- 6 oz. white vinegar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/3 Tbsp. poppy seeds
- 1 oz. onion powder
- 1 oz. garlic powder
- 1 oz. chili powder
- 1 ½ lbs. fresh broccoli, shredded
- 1 lb. fresh carrots, shredded
- 6 ¼ oz. fresh baby spinach, chopped
- 11 oz. canned crushed pineapple
- 3 ¼ lbs. cooked diced chicken
- 25 whole wheat tortillas
Instructions
Combine mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, poppy seeds, onion powder, garlic powder and chili powder to make dressing. Mix well and refrigerate at 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine broccoli, carrots, spinach and pineapple, then mix in dressing and chicken. Cool to 41 degrees Fahrenheit or lower within four hours if storing.
Portion 2/3 cup of mixture onto the center of each tortilla. Roll and seal, then cut diagonally in half.
Serve 1 wrap (2 halves) each. Serves 25.
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