D15 students offered samples of new veggie dishes

Students at Lake Louise, Pleasant Hill, Hunting Ridge, and Central Road Schools recently sampled what will be a new addition to School Nutrition Services menu—southwest bean salad.

The dish has been added to the menu as a result of recently passed legislation. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 has allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to implement several big changes to the meal patterns defined in the National School Lunch Program. Meal patterns define what a meal consists of, and, of course, every meal must include fruits and vegetables.

Prior to the USDA's recent changes to these food patterns, fruits and vegetables were lumped into one all-encompassing category, meaning every meal served was required to include ½ to ¾ of a cup of fruits and/or vegetables. Now, fruits and vegetables have been split into two separate categories, and meals must include anywhere from ¾ to 1 cup of vegetables and between ½ and 1 cup of fruit.

Additionally, the vegetable category has been further divided into the following five subgroups:

• Dark green vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, and kale, as well as collard greens, mustard greens, and turnip greens, and dark green, leafy lettuces such as romaine.

• Red and orange vegetables such as tomatoes and tomato juice, red peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin, as well as acorn and butternut squashes.

• Starchy vegetables such as corn, potatoes, plantains, green peas, and lima beans.

• Other vegetables such as avocado, asparagus, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, green beans, green peppers, iceberg lettuce, mushrooms, okra, onions, and zucchini.

• Beans and peas (legumes) such as black beans, white beans, navy beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, soy beans, split peas, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, and lentils.

“We now have to serve each one of these subgroups at least once a week,” said Bobbie Desprat, director of School Nutrition Services. “However, many students aren't familiar with a lot of these vegetables, so we want to introduce them to these unfamiliar foods by providing them samples of our new dishes and getting their opinions before adding them to the menu.”

By all accounts, the first sampling went well. The southwest bean salad, which fits into the beans and peas (legumes) category of vegetable offerings, generally received a thumbs-up from the students who tried it.

-Story Submitted by Community Consolidated School District 15