Buy School Lunch and Feel good about it

Change is a coming to the Hingham School lunch program. My name is Kimberly Smyth and I am the new Food Service Director for Hingham Schools. I started mid September 2011 as an interim position and will now take on the position on a permanent basis. Just to give a little background on myself, I am a graduate of Framingham State University. I hold a degree in Food and Nutrition and I have spent much of my professional career in the restaurant industry. This experience has giving me a different perspective on food service than some of my colleagues.

This past school year I spent much of my time trying to get a feel for what the kids are looking for when they choose lunch. I spent time in the food labs at the high school, I did some sampling at the middle school and there was a group of parents from each school that met frequently toward the end of the school year.

This next year there will be many changes to the school lunch program. The federal nutrition regulations are more specific this year. The regulations are requiring a reduced range of calories, grains must be 50% or more whole grain, there are specific types of vegetables that must be served weekly and the amount of protein and grains has been reduced. School lunches will be colorfully decorated with fresh produce. It may surprise many that Hingham meets most of these requirements already. The big changes that students will need to get used to are the whole grains and the reduced portion sizes of the proteins and grains.

The school lunch program lacks marketing. A big thing I learned is that students especially in the high school and middle school don't take the time to read what is on the menu. Thanks to a Hingham Education Foundation grant a giant flat screen display has been installed in the high school to promote the school lunch program. We will also be online. Hingham schools is currently in the process of searching for a company that will allow the community to have online accounts for their students. Parents will be able to view what was purchased at lunch. Each student will have a pin number attached to their account. With this technology comes oodles of opportunities.

The other big change is the school lunch program will be changing over from Styrofoam to paper. All the schools are recycling and composting. The school lunch program hopes to reduce the amount of trash while increasing the presentation of school lunch. The high school and middle school's will be serving lunch on oval paper platters. Last year we tried it at the high school one day per week for approximately 6 weeks. It substantially reduced the amount of trash and the kids liked it. One student said, "It was more like eating at home".

Change is always a challenge but it is time. I am hoping to build a program that parents and kids will both want to choose to buy lunch and feel good about it.