Spring 2011 News from BVSD Nutrition Services
Welcome to Spring! I hope you and your children had a great Spring break. All of us in Nutrition Services welcome your students back to school. Our goal for the remainder of the school year is that all BVSD students will have access to delicious/nutritious food.
We have some exciting changes to share with you. These were all based on student and parent feedback:
- We are serving fresh-made soups in secondary schools.
- We have increased our portion sizes on the following items:
o All Pasta dishes in both elementary and secondary schools
o Pizza in elementary schools
o Chicken in elementary schools
o Beef Tacos and Beef Nachos in both elementary and secondary schools.
- We have a new pizza crust that the students have loved in taste testing.
- Condiment stations are set up for self-service additions to all sandwiches. These stations include mayo, mustard and pickles.
- Condiment stations are also set up for self-service sauce additions so students can “spice-up” their entrees. These include BBQ Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce, Hot Sauce, Salsa (all schools) and salt and pepper (secondary schools only).
Other new developments:
- We have been meeting with Fairview, Casey, and Southern Hills students to discuss menu options.
- We are sponsoring our second annual Iron Chef Competition, where student teams from our high schools will compete for cash prizes and have their winning recipes served on next year’s menus.
- We are running Make a Rainbow on Your Plate Day at all of our elementary schools. On that day all students get to make a free salad from the salad bar and learn to make healthy “rainbow” choices.
Fall 2011 Changes and Developments:
- We did many tastings, worked with students, changed recipes, met with parents and worked hard to serve the best possible food.
- We recruited 175 new parent volunteers who began helping out in our schools. If you would like to volunteer to work with us, please contact Sunny Young at: 720.561.6005.
- We began making all of our pasta sauces, burritos, pizza, enchilada casserole, quesadillas and sandwiches in-house - from scratch.
- We developed a new recipe for Sloppy Joes that kids are enjoying.
- We began offering a Hummus Wrap vegetarian choice whenever Tuna or Egg Salad are on the menu. This assures that we offer vegetarian options at every school, every day.
- We got full salad bars into ALL of our schools. The salad bars include animal and vegetable protein and fresh fruit and vegetables. The salad bar meal can be purchased for $2.75 at elementary schools and $3.00 at secondary schools and side salads can be purchased for $1.00.
- We started serving bulk organic Colorado 1% milk at lunch and hormone and antibiotic-free fat-free milk at both breakfast and lunch.
- We instituted Universal Breakfast at five schools and breakfast is now being served in almost all BVSD schools.
- We started serving fresh fruits and vegetables every day at lunch; in fact we are now serving seven times the fruits and vegetables than were being served before we instituted our healthy meals.
- We continue to post all of our allergen and nutrition information on the BVSD website at: http://bvsd.org/food/Pages/default.aspx and started up an Allergen Alert email group. To get on that list, please email deb.mccormick@bvsd.org
Many parents have contacted us wanting a way to check their student’s meal accounts. I strongly encourage all of you to use Pay For It to manage your child’s account. It is fast, easy and very convenient to use. Benefits include:
- No transaction fees ever!
- Monitor when and what your students are eating.
- No lost checks or cash at the bottom of your student’s back pack.
- Set up a low-balance email reminder for when your student’s account gets below a level you choose. Add money to their account when you decide – it takes only minutes to do.
- If you prefer, set up an auto-refill when your student’s account drops to zero.
- No money is ever charged to your credit card without your approval.
- No more negative balance notifications or phone calls, with online access to timely account information and the tools needed to manage your student’s account.
Please visit www.PayForIt.net today to set up your student’s account. There is an Information/FAQ button on the menu bar with easy instructions to get you started. All you need is your student’s 6-digit ID number and a credit card.
If you have any questions about your child’s meal account, please contact Nutrition Services at 720.561.5942.
Meal assistance is available if needed. Please apply for help today, at your school office or the Nutrition Services office. Your children may qualify for free- or reduced-price meals at school. We want all students to have access to fresh, healthy food so that they may thrive. The quicker we can get your student’s meal status taken care of, the better.
With all of these many positive changes to the school meals, we want to encourage you and your children to participate in the school breakfast and lunch programs. In fact, one of the most important things you can do for your child’s education and well-being is assure that they are well fed both at home and in school. Encouraging your children to eat school breakfast and school lunch not only helps assure their health and academic abilities, but also supports the Nutrition Services Department and the entire school district. The more students who eat meals at school, the more financially viable the program becomes.
We hope you will join us in helping your children make healthy food choices in school and at home. Together we can help raise a new generation of healthier and better educated young people.
Remember, we need your help to keep this program growing and viable, so please have your children eat school lunch!
Thank you for your continued support,
Ann Cooper
Director of Nutrition Services