Fresh food pays off for Granville (OH) schools
The district's cafeterias have banished processed foods in favor of fresh, locally grown fare. Some students are grousing, but most are embracing the
Try the turkey wrap.
That's not deli meat - it's real turkey breast that was roasted and carved right in the school kitchen. The romaine lettuce was cut fresh this morning.
Each stromboli is made with fresh dough. The broccoli is from a farm a few miles away. The chicken came fresh, not frozen.
Granville schools have transformed school lunches in a way that few, if any, other central Ohio school districts have. This school year, the Licking County district ditched most frozen and processed foods in favor of fresh and local.
Ending its food contract with nearby Newark City Schools meant the end of processed chicken and tater tots (to the chagrin of some students). The per-plate food costs went up slightly, to an average cost of $1.13 per lunch, which will translate to a 10-cent increase in lunch prices next school year.
But far more students are eating the cafeterias' food in Granville's schools. Twenty-two percent of students bought lunches last school year. Now, 57 percent do. That's about 1,100 students per day.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/10/tater-tots-i-think-not.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101