More fun with school food

EAST SPENCER — The crew charged with filling bellies with healthy foods each day has just expanded its menu.

Students and staff returning to Rowan-Salisbury Schools on Aug. 7 will find more cafeteria choices than ever before.

A week of Mexican, Italian, Chinese, German and Greek foods. Another week dedicated to pizza — including one topped with barbecued chicken. Breakfast with grandparents, franks on World Series Day and a beach party with shrimp and fish.

“We’re just trying to have some fun with menus,” said Libby Post, who oversees the school system’s nearly 150 cafeteria workers. “We’re really trying to be more a part of the schools than separate.”

Meeting the federal government’s nutritional guidelines is easy, Post said. The harder job is doing that and finding foods children want at a reasonable cost.

Last year the public schools introduced steak and cheese hoagies and wedge-shaped pizza slices (they’re typically cut in rectangles in the school cafeterias). Hot wings have been enormously popular in the high schools, which also make salads available each day.

The school system also created “Salisbury dippers” — breaded mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce.

This year students will find vegetables and fruits highlighted monthly. While nutrition fairs were hosted at five of the 30 campuses last year, they’ll be offered at all the schools in 2001-2002. The fairs give children the chance to find out about their blood pressure and pulse, have their height and weight measured, study a food pyramid and learn about nutrition.

The school system also will use grant money to incorporate diet education into classrooms at four schools.

“The bottom line is, we’re trying to give the kids what they need,” she said.

Schools will feature produce grown in North Carolina. But thanks to a contract with the Department of Defense, the school system is able to find imported fruits and vegetables at a lower cost than it could on its own. Last year, children got to sample star fruit, kiwi, kumquats and blood oranges.

“This gives them a chance to try some ethnic foods,” Post said. “Our student population is diverse now. ... There are a lot of things the Hispanic students recognize.”

Unassisted families can also expect to pay more for meals. Increases will range from a nickel for breakfasts in elementary schools to 15 cents for lunches in middle and high schools. That will boost pay for cafeteria employees.

Last December, children in Rowan-Salisbury Schools consumed an average 3,441 breakfasts and 13,500 lunches daily, Post said. The percentage of all students who ate lunch in the schools rose from 65 percent in December 1999 to 71 percent — 12,280 mouths — last December.

More free breakfasts may be part of the reason. Last year, nine elementary schools began offering free breakfast to kindergartners. North Rowan and Knox middle schools offer free breakfast for all students.

Milk consumption rose 30 percent last year — largely because cafeterias began offering chocolate milk free with meals, Post said.

Food service workers in the schools haven’t been sitting on the back burner this summer. At Salisbury High School, they’ve cooked about 800 breakfast meals and 1,200 lunches on some days and delivered the food by bus to children in parks, at recreation centers and at the Salisbury Civic Center.

Contact Brad A. Hodges at 704-797-4266 or bhodges@salisburypost.com .