In her 14 years as child nutrition director for the $383 Manhattan-Ogden School District, Stephanie Smith has driven progress toward healthier, more sustainable school meals.
Smith wants the school to provide students with higher-quality meals made from higher-quality ingredients, but getting there has had its ups and downs.
“A lot has changed since I’ve been here,” Smith said. “When I first started, we were using part of our central kitchen to produce scratch-made goods. And then once the pandemic hit and labor became an issue, we had facility needs and staffing needs. This took us in the complete opposite direction.
“Right now, we’re trying to get back to homemade, scratch-made products, and we’re also trying to bring in locally sourced products.”
Smith said preparing meals from scratch is helpful for children with allergies. This way, you have more control over what goes into your food and better knowledge about the ingredients in your products.
Pediatric nutrition teams often introduce new items to the menu.
“The hardest part is getting kids to try new things every once in a while that they haven’t been exposed to before,” Smith says.
Smith said her team is more accepting of baked goods such as chocolate bread.
She said the team also gets ideas for new dishes from the USDA Recipe Box and the Chef Anne Foundation’s Lunch Box Tool. Offer everything at least twice to gauge interest.
“School nutrition is a very collaborative group nationally,” Smith said. “Even in the children’s nutrition Facebook group I’m a part of, people sometimes try new recipes.”
Smith said she sometimes finds recipes online and adjusts them to meet school nutrition standards for whole grains and low sodium.
USD 383’s child nutrition division works with local farmers and ranchers to produce products such as Wagyu beef. The department obtains flour from K-State University’s Flour Science Program. Mr Smith put out a call to farms whose owners would like to get involved.
There is also a focus on changing tools to be more sustainable.
Smith said the school has switched from Styrofoam trays to compostable fiber trays. The school is now almost fully staffed again and has also returned to using reusable silverware instead of disposables.
“We had a little bit of a hard time getting the kids to hold the silverware,” Smith said. “That’s still a bit of a problem. We have a lot of silverware that ends up in the trash.”
Under Smith, the school has participated in more programs, including the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a federal program that provides more produce. The school also provided meals for the at-risk dinner program and expanded the summer lunch program from five to nine meal locations.
“I think the biggest change since I became director is just the number of programs we run,” Smith said. “We strive to include any programs that the district is eligible for as benefits to families.”
Recently, Mr. Smith and the child nutrition team were awarded the Dave Colburn Green Apple Award for their sustainable practices and commitment to the community.
“It’s a great honor,” Smith said. “It was such a pleasant surprise. We work behind the scenes because we do support services. Often we get forgotten because we are part of everyday life, so we won this award.” I was very happy to be able to do it.”
Currently, the pediatric nutrition department has approximately 50 employees. For the upcoming school year, he has two kitchen staff positions available and several positions in the school cafeteria.
“I have a great team,” Smith said. “They’re very good at their jobs. We all try to be very efficient. I have a very caring team on my team. They want to do a good job. They We know what we are doing is important to children.”
