guide to school meals

The National Farm to School Network offers invaluable resources to help K-12 school cafeterias. It helps to incorporate and promote local foods, with the support of the USDA Farm to School Program. These resources, along with grants for educational activities, are fantastic ways that schools can improve their lunch programs.  

Research has found that having a farm-to-school program can foster healthy eating habits. It makes students more likely to try nutritious fruits and vegetables. If you're looking for ways to improve school lunches, look no further than the National Farm to School Network! 

Across the U.S., school gardens are becoming a popular way to teach students how to improve school lunches and snacks. For example, in a school in Vermont, indoor tower gardens provide an opportunity for students to learn how fresh ingredients can be grown and used in healthy recipes.  

In New York City, raised beds give students access to a variety of fresh produce. And in tribal communities, native food gardens provide students with a unique chance to learn how to incorporate traditional ingredients into their meals.  

The 2015, USDA Farm to School Census indicated that there were more than 7,000 school gardens across the country. In addition, Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard Project at a middle school in California includes a one-acre garden and a kitchen classroom.  

To ensure that students understand how to use the fresh ingredients they grow, nutrition education should be part of the curriculum. This can be done through field trips to the garden, special lessons about healthy eating habits and other interactive activities that help students develop a better understanding of how to make nutritious meals.  

By teaching nutrition education through school gardens and various curricula, schools can create healthier food environments and help students learn how to improve their own school lunches. By implementing these ideas, schools can create healthier lunches and snacks that students will enjoy and benefit from. 

Making the switch to higher-quality, more nutritious and locally sourced food can help schools create healthy school lunches students enjoy — all while working within a budget. Preparing more meals on-site can also be a great way to improve the quality of school lunches. With the right approach, schools can make positive changes to what their students eat.  

In 2016, the Oakland Unified School District in California made a groundbreaking decision to partner with the Center for Good Food Purchasing. This decision enabled the school to source food from local farms and companies that provided nutritious, minimally processed ingredients.  

Additionally, these sources were expected to follow fair labor practices and pay employees a living wage.  

In just two years, the school district managed to reduce its animal product intake by 30%. The meat that was still served was sourced from carefully chosen pasture-raised sources. 

The Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools program, which was initiated in 2010, is a collaborative effort between renowned chef Ann Cooper, produce associations and grocers. The mission of this alliance is to have salad bars available in all K-12 schools across the United States.  

By providing a wide variety of fresh produce options, salad bars give students the freedom to choose how they want their meals to be composed, while also encouraging them to try and consume more fruits and vegetables. Evidence shows that having salad bars in school cafeterias increases children’s intake of nutrient-rich foods.  

In short, implementing salad bars in schools is an effective way to improve school lunches.  

In addition to salad bars, there are other ways to improve school lunches. Consider serving whole-grain foods such as brown rice, whole-wheat pasta and 100% whole-grain bread and tortillas. These foods contain more fiber and essential nutrients.  

If you're wondering how to improve school lunches, one way is to remove certain types of products. Processed food and unhealthy ingredients contain a lot of added sugars, fats, sodium and other additives.  

This can hurt children’s health in the long run. So, if schools eliminate those types of food from their lunch programs, they will be providing healthier options for students.  

Because many processed foods lack important nutrients, eliminating them from lunch menus can help ensure that students are getting the vitamins and minerals they need to stay healthy. This would likely lead to an overall improvement in students’ learning performance as well as their physical health.  

By including whole foods and fresh ingredients instead of processed ones, schools will be helping set healthier habits for their students as they grow. This in turn could lead to long-term benefits for both the students and schools. Therefore, eliminating processed food and unhealthy ingredients is an important part of how to improve school lunches.  

The Berkeley Unified School District in California has taken steps to make school lunches healthier by eliminating processed foods. This includes hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, refined sugars and refined flour, as well as chemicals, dye additives and nitrates.  

In addition, school cafeterias are serving local organic milk and local and/or organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible. These changes are helping to create healthier meal options for students. This has led to an overall improvement in student health and learning. 

Schools need to include vegetarian, vegan and other dietary options in their menus to help ensure students are getting enough nutrients even if they don't eat meat or particular food groups.  

Some great vegetarian options include bean burritos, lentil soup, black bean burgers and veggie wraps. These types of dishes provide a good source of protein, fiber and vitamins that students need to stay healthy.  

In addition, schools should also consider offering vegan options such as salads made with quinoa or tofu, hummus and veggie wraps. These dishes provide a variety of nutrients that are important for students’ health and well-being.  

By incorporating vegetarian and vegan options into their lunch menus, schools can ensure they are appealing to a more diverse range of students’ dietary and nutritional needs, so they can stay healthy and perform well in school.  

After a successful pilot program of providing plant-based school lunches at seven Los Angeles schools, the Los Angeles Unified School District could become the first in the nation to offer a vegan lunch selection at every school.  

Lila Copeland, a student and youth director for Earth Peace, pushed her proposal forward to provide California students with a daily vegan entrée and nondairy beverage option by the time she graduated high school in 2020.  

Bowls are a great way to offer a variety of nutritious foods at once. Try adding quinoa with black beans and veggies, zoodles with veggies or lentil salads to your school lunch menu.  

Buddha bowls are also a great option, combining grains or starches with colorful vegetables, legumes/beans or tofu, and sometimes fruit all in one dish. 

Burritos and wraps are a great way to offer students more healthy options for school lunches. Try incorporating some of these delicious recipes into your lunch program: bean burritos, tahini and red pepper rolls, plant-based chickpea “tuna” salad, collard wraps, veggie sushi rolls and plant-powered pita pizzas. Not only are these recipes nutritious, but they make for an exciting lunch that your students will love!   

Sandwiches are a great way to get creative in the lunchroom! Try preparing cucumber and hummus, apple and nut butter, avocado and veggies or veggie burgers for something different. Hummus is a classic sandwich spread, but why not mix it up by making white bean hummus or adding other ingredients like peas and mint?  

Try giving your students a healthier version of pasta. Simply make whole-grain or bean-based pasta, then add beans and veggies along with your favorite sauce for an easy, delicious meal. It's an easy way to provide healthy options to your school lunch program.  

Meals in a jar are perfect for those who want to make healthier lunch choices. If you're looking for easy, portable and tasty options, there are plenty of creative ideas to try. Recipes like crunchy Asian salad, Mexican black bean salad, fruity kale salad and Greek chickpea salad all work well.   

Sides and snacks are essential for a balanced school lunch. To make them more nutritious, try adding some fresh fruit and seeds, roasted chickpeas, kale chips, celery logs with nut butter and raisins, energy balls, homemade granola bars, chia seed puddings and veggies with hummus. 

Lunch time at school can be one of the best parts of a kid's day. From aloo gosht in Pakistan to sausage rolls in Australia and smoky, tomato-y jollof rice in Nigeria, we’re taking a look at what kids around the world eat for lunch. 

Abby Miller is a consultant specializing in developing effective, nutritious school meal programs for rural communities throughout Eastern Washington. As a registered dietitian, she focuses her work on educating faculties and students alike on everything from scratch cooking skills to the nutritional importance of fresh produce. As a mother of two young girls, she is passionate about child nutrition education and the important role that food has in the social, emotional, mental, and physical development of children.

Chef Ann Cooper is a celebrated author, chef, educator, and enduring advocate for better food for all children. Ann is Director of Food Services for the Boulder Valley School District. She is co-founder of Lunch Lessons LLC and the Food Family Farming Foundation(F3)'s Lunch Box Project: Healthy Tools for All schools. 

Roughly 30 million kids in the U.S. eat school lunch every day, and "Big Food" companies have a pretty big stake in what makes it on kids' trays. It starts with federal money, but before USDA funding makes it to cafeterias, many school districts order from food giants like Tyson and PepsiCo who grab a big slice of the school lunch pie.

We hear a lot about school lunches in America and the food itself doesn't always get the best reputation. From Hollywood depictions to real life memories, the school cafeteria is a quintessential part of American culture. 

An Ode to Lunch Ladies and Lunch Gentlemen everywhere!  On today’s episode of Local Legends we learn why a Michelin-Starred restaurant chef, Dan Giusti, left his job at one of the world’s best restaurants, NOMA in Copenhagen, to start cooking school lunches for kids.