The K-12 menu features healthy meal choices. All grain items served must contain at least 51% whole grains, including all baked entree breading (Example: breading on a chicken patty). A variety of fruits and vegetable choices are available. Students in grades K-12 have access to a nutritious morning breakfast. Students in grades 9-12 may also make numerous snack and beverage purchases. All snack and beverage items offered meet the "Smart Snacks" guidelines, such as whole grain cookies, baked chips, fruit cups, string cheese and low/zero calorie beverages.
The School Nutrition program is centered on following concepts of increasing servings of fruits and vegetables, offering whole grain-rich foods, while decreasing the amount of sodium, fat, saturated fat, and serving zero grams of trans fat in the menu. We hope to accomplish this by offering a variety of healthy items in appropriate serving sizes that enable students to learn to make healthier choices, both in and out of the school environment. At the start of each serving line is the USDA MyPlate chart which explains the different meal items and how they fit with the meal service for the day. Each item listed includes the servings of fruit, vegetable, grain, protein, and milk that are offered that day. The program participates in offer versus serve meal option, which enables the student to have some choice in what they select for their meal items and helps to reduce plate waste. The students are required to select at least three different items from the fruit, vegetable, milk, protein, and grain categories. One of the selections must be from the fruit or vegetable group. The fruit or vegetable serving must be a 1/2 cup serving to be considered one category. As a District we encourage you to talk to your child about the choices they made for their meal that day. Did they try new items? Can they identify what the category their entree was for the meal? Was there a new meal served? If your child comes home hungry still, ask them what meal choices they selected from, and the options offered. If they didn't select all the items, encourage them to try another category they didn't choose that time.
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