Students get chance to grade new cafeteria food for taste, looks
Palm Beach County School District offers updated recipes
The harshest critics of new food— 4- to13-year-old students— reviewed cafeteria food that Palm Beach County schools hope to start serving today, the first day of school.
The school district tried out updated recipes and asked about 20 elementary and middle school students to give their opinions on howthe food looked and tasted. On Thursday, at Crystal Lakes Elementary School’s cafeteria in Boynton Beach, each child was given a plate filled with kid-friendly lunch items and a paper to share their thoughts.
Among the changes planned for Palm Beach school cafeterias are more Latin-inspired dishes for Hispanic
Heritage Month, food shaped like emojis in October and breakfast-for-lunch options every Wednesday.
As the students nibbled on each item on their plates, most of the kids ranked each dish as a “love it” or “like it” on worksheets theywere given.
Thiswas the second year the school district asked students for their input on lunches before the school year, said Allison Monbleau, the director of School Food Service, the arm of the school district that provides meals to students.
Based off what students wrote down, Monbleau and her team of dietitians and chefs may go back to the cutting board, she said. The new dishes will be offered as early as today.
If “Fiesta Fridays,” a newway of infusing Latin culture into the cafeteria food goes well, the district may come up with new foods for African-American History Month, Monbleau said.
The Hispanic food, served from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, includes Cuban sandwiches, taco nachos with fiesta rice and yuca fries.
The taste test was the first time some students had heard of certain foods, such as the Monte Cristo sandwich and yuca fries.
Ann Flick, 13, called the yuca fries “an acquired taste.”
Still, the Christa McAuliffe Middle School eighth-grader said she looks forward to telling her classmates that the new food tastes good.
“They have my seal of approval,” she said.
When11-year-old Avery Triest bit into the Monte Cristo, she liked the crunch of the toasted bread, she said.
Triest, a sixth-grader from Okeeheelee Middle School, said she enjoyed the variety of offerings.
“I felt like Iwalked into a restaurant,” she said.
Still, she said she might not get a school meal, concerned waiting in a line that snakes out of the kitchen could take up much of lunchtime.
“By the time I sit down, it’s time to go,” she said.
Some of the dishes, such as hot dogs and chicken nuggets, were familiar to the students but slightly upgraded.
This year’s hot dogs will be made from beef instead of turkey and will get baked as opposed to steamed, said Greta Sellitti, the Crystal Lakes cafeteria manager.
Cafeteria employees tried the food they served and thought the new dishes were an improvement.
Sellitti said sandwiches are normally served cold, so the new chicken filet sandwich and Monte Cristo might take longer to prepare and heat up.
“A little more preparation but worth it,” she said.
Iette Sykes felt optimistic when her 13-year-old daughter, Hallie— a picky eater— filled her plate with options at the taste test.
She hopes her daughter will opt for cafeteria food, she said.
“It will be a lot cheaper for me and take me less time packing her lunches,” she said.
A school lunch is $2.05 or $2.30, depending on the school, or 40 cents for reduced price. Breakfast is free for all students.
School Board Vice Chairwoman Dr. Debra Robinson chowed down with the students. While she thought the food had improved, she still hoped to see more color on her plate in the form of vegetables and fruits, she said.
Parents also got to try the food their kids were testing.
For Nicole Fields, itwas the first time she sawthe food served to her12-year-old son, J.J., in school. While she looks up the menu online when she sends him to school without a lunch box, reading the names of the dishes is different than seeing and trying it, she said.
“It didn’t even taste like school food,” she said.
“I felt like I walked into a restaurant.” Avery Triest, 11, a sixth-grader from Okeeheelee Middle School