In honor of National Nutrition Month, Jean Falk, Registered Dietitian for Nutritional Development Services (NDS), hosted a taste test at Tech Freire Charter High School. Tech Freire is a new high school that joined the NDS school breakfast and lunch program this school year. Their students’ feedback is especially valuable in developing an appealing, age-appropriate high school lunch menu.
A dedicated group of freshman and sophomore taste testers put their “Best Forks Forward” to try two potential new meals: Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and chicken drums with potato rounds. The students particularly enjoyed the home-style appeal of the chicken drums. In the end, both meals received the taste testers’ stamp of approval!
NDS partners with 98 parochial, charter, and small Christian schools to serve an average of 17,000 lunches each day across the southeastern region of Pennsylvania. Taste Tests are offered regularly throughout the school year to engage students in the menu-planning process and to offer a variety of student-selected food choices to increase meal satisfaction. School lunch provides a student with 1/3 of their daily requirement for calories and key growth nutrients.
National Nutrition Month is a nutrition education and information campaign created annually in March by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. This year’s theme, “Put Your Best Fork Forward,” reminds students eating healthy improves health now and in the future. To learn more about National Nutrition Month, please visit http://www.eatright.org/resources/national-nutrition-month.