Dist. 15 adds 'Veggie Boost Bar' to its lunch program

Community Consolidated School District 15's School Nutrition Services is supplementing its lunch program with a new Veggie Boost Bar that is now available to students in all District 15 schools.

The Veggie Boost Bar will offer daily choices from the USDA's division of the vegetable category 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.

“The addition of the Veggie Boost Bar has really been well received,” said Bobbie Desprat, District 15's School Nutrition Services director. “So far, students' favorite vegetables have been cucumbers, red peppers, carrots, and broccoli. Parents might want to remember that when planning meals for their families.”

The Veggie Boost Bar's addition to the District's lunch program stems from a new requirement called for in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Beginning this year, the act requires students to take a half-cup serving of either a fruit or vegetable in order to purchase a meal from schools that participate in U.S. Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch Program.

-Story Submitted by Community Consolidated School District 15