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Brookside Elementary fourth-grader Brennen Zeigler tried a salad during the food fair. (Photo by Jonathan Kleppinger/jkleppinger@jessaminejournal.com / January 16, 2013) |
New cafeteria offerings were met with nods and smiles as well as a few shakes and grimaces at the Jessamine County school district’s first food fair Friday.
Food-services staff welcomed about 300 students — 30 from each elementary, middle and high school — to the gym in the Coolidge Building off Maple Street, where they judged vendors’ new concoctions that meet federal nutrition guidelines.
Regulations from the Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act went into effect in the fall before manufacturers could create new products, Jessamine food-service director Karen Barden said. The result was smaller portions that drew the ire of parents and students.
“We had a lot of complaints at the beginning of the school year with the new guidelines, and we had stacks of letters from the children and the parents,” Barden said. “The manufacturers did not have enough time to really formulate the products that we need, and now, in January, all the new products came out, so we have healthier food items that meet the new guidelines, and we’re trying those with our students, because we realize that the menus have to be kid-friendly, not just healthy and nutritious.”
Most of the offerings were met with rave reviews from students, district officials and even Jessamine County circuit clerk Doug Fain, who said he would be comfortable serving almost all the items to his own children at home.
“My little girl has started taking her lunch because she doesn’t care for the food, (but) I think anything here she would like,” he said.
Barden said she would use the feedback from students when developing menus.
“We wanted kids to give us input on what they like; we wanted their input when we do the menus for them,” she said.
