Urbandale’s nutrition team has expanded the variety of homemade school lunches on our menu this year. | Photo Shutterstock
Students in the Urbandale Community School District in Urbandale, Iowa, represent 20 countries and bring a melting pot of languages, cultures, and cuisines to the classroom every day.
Given that diversity, the nutrition team created more culturally relevant meals on the menu to create familiarity for students who enjoy similar meals at home and to expose other students to different cuisines. We are trying to incorporate it into the.
“[I wanted to have] Students in our district get to try something new,” says Food Service Director Jesse Sadler.
To achieve these goals, Sadler applied for and received a Healthy School Meal Incentive (HMI) grant through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the nonprofit organization Action for Healthy Kids.
This grant program is designed to help small and/or rural schools increase their homemade meal options and increase the amount of local ingredients used on their menus.
Urbandale focused the funding on staff training and menu development to provide fresher, more culturally diverse meals to students.
on behalf of the student council
When we set out to revamp our menu, one of the team’s first challenges was figuring out exactly what students wanted. So they sent her a Google survey to complete.
“We received a lot of feedback about fresh food, homemade food, and flavored food,” Sadler said.
Using that feedback as a guide, the team worked to expand the menu to include local, handcrafted options that also reflected the students’ cultural backgrounds.
Middle Eastern chicken shawarma, Burmese chicken curry, sheet-roasted ratatouille, and Somali chicken drumsticks with jollof rice are just some of the dishes served to students this year.
Sadler and his team recognize that federal school nutrition regulations can make it difficult to prepare certain dishes exactly as they would be prepared in your home country. They try to get as close to authentic food as possible and make sure to clearly state this on the menu.
“We say all cultural meals are inspirational,” Sadler says.
To prepare his staff to serve the new dishes, Sadler used some of the grant money for training and hired a chef consultant to help with menu development and more.
“We are fortunate to have everything we need and more when it comes to equipment,” she says. “We wanted to invest more in our staff.”
Phase-in of fresh food
In addition to new culturally inspired dishes on this year’s menu, high school students can also add a variety of vegetables to their meals from the veggie bar.
Bars always include items such as carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers. In addition to these core products, the team has also begun introducing rotating menu items such as radish and purple cauliflower, which are often sourced from local suppliers.
“We not only meet subgroups of vegetables, but we also give them a variety of vegetables to try in rotation,” Sadler says. “[Students] I really liked that there was a wide variety and I could choose what I liked. ”
Even at lower grade levels, the nutrition team is introducing new fruit options and phasing out canned fresh fruit.
“This year, two days a week, [we serve] Fresh fruit,” says Sadler. “Next year it will be three days a week.”
The vegetable offerings have also been renewed. As well as fruit options, the team is moving away from using canned vegetables. Items such as green beans and broccoli are now served roasted rather than steamed, which has been well received by students.
“We’ve seen a lot of kids eat multiple servings because they’re not steamed, they’re roasted,” Sadler says.
Next year, the team looks forward to continuing to serve culturally relevant meals and experimenting with new menu items like kimchi slaw. Sadler also wants to incorporate fresher flavors into her dishes, such as ginger and coriander, and looks forward to using fresh sweet potatoes, onions and other produce from area gardens in her meals. .
“We have a school garden, so we’re planting a lot of this fall’s produce to use for next year’s menu,” she says.
