School lunches tend to be a hit or miss with many students, but Meridian Public School District’s child nutrition department is working to make sure its students are finding foods they like on the lunch menu.
From a traditional meal of chicken tenders, green beans and mashed potatoes, to a healthier option of a chef salad at the high school, to student favorites like walking tacos and hot wings, Meridian students returning to classes Tuesday will once again find a variety of dining options on school menus depending on the day of the week.
Louise Diane McPhee, the district’s child nutrition director, said school cafeterias plan to add a few new items to menus this year to go along with traditional favorites like chicken spaghetti, hamburgers and fries and chicken wraps. All foods will meet healthy food guidelines for student lunches and breakfast items, she noted.
“We are going to emphasize more items that kids like and that kids will eat because you can’t teach a hungry child,” she said.
McPhee said the child nutrition department is rebranding itself and plans to enhance its social media presence so parents are more aware of what is served on school lunch menus, as well as news and information within the department.
“This school year, we are sort of re-branding ourselves,” she said. “We want to enhance the look of our food and the food presentation of our meals.”
To help them in their presentation effort, the district brought in Anthony Terrell, a culinary specialist with the Memphis-Shelby County Schools in Tennessee for a professional development session Monday.
Terrell, known as Chef T, has worked with the Memphis-Shelby County district for the past 17 years. He said the reasons students do not eat meals in school cafeterias is all about the food.
“It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t taste good or it’s just not good,” Terrell said, then added that “the reasons that they do eat with us has nothing to do with food. It’s free, it’s convenient and they’re hungry.”
This is why school districts need to work on providing tasty foods that students like, presented in a fun way that draws their attention.
He showed the Meridian child nutrition workers how to add garnishments — a duck carved from a cantaloupe or a mouse face created from an orange and sliced lemons — next to trays of food to engage students as they pass through the food line in the cafeteria.
“We eat with our eyes first,” he said. “It’s just to draw kids in, especially our elementary kids. If you put that little mouse on a pan of macaroni and cheese, how fun is that for the kids. Again, the lunch room should be a learning experience and a fun experience.”
Terrell also shared a few nontraditional school lunch items that have made their way onto the menus in Memphis-Shelby County Schools and the technique of how to prepare them, including chicken or beef broccoli in teriyaki sauce over a bed of brown rice, a Cuban sandwich and a Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich.
The chicken broccoli in teriyaki sauce was a big hit with the school district employees and will likely find its way onto school menus this year, McPhee said.
Amanda Williams, the district’s assistant child nutrition director, said it can be challenging especially at the middle school and high school levels to plan meals for students who tend to be more selective at that age.
“We observe what goes over well, and we talk to our managers and get feedback from students on what they like,” she said. “We try to stay within the healthy guidelines required of us. I skim through all of the recipes in my MRS database, that is Mississippi Recipes for Success, and I choose what I think the students will enjoy and we try to put our twist on it.”
Healthy school meal guidelines require foods low in sodium, the use of whole grain noodles, and daily servings of fruits and vegetables. The district meets those guidelines even with student favorite meals like walking tacos, Williams said. Walking tacos are whole grain Doritos chips in a bag, topped with ground beef, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and nacho cheese.
McPhee said child nutrition hopes to work with teachers, students and parents to make sure the meals being prepared are foods students will eat.
“We want to make sure we have foods that the students want to pick up and want to eat, and they are just not feeding the garbage can,” she said.