Cafeteria connections
Students, from left, Maya Murray, Maia Nelson and Sid Savaraman, enjoy their Ohio-sourced lunches at a cafeteria in Bexley, where the Ohio Days program has been particularly successful.
Program supporting state-sourced school lunches is catching on
As they scooped up spoonfuls of garlicky sweet potatoes and bit into ovenroasted turkey sandwiches, the smiling Bexley students
savored a taste of the Buckeye State.
The early Thanksgiving feast was entirely grown and raised in Ohio.
An all-local meal is now a monthly practice for the Bexley school district. Some students said that, even though they usually pack their lunches, they enjoy the food so much that they leave
their lunchboxes at home.
“You can really taste the difference,” seventh-grader Sid Sivaraman, 12, said as his classmates crunched into fresh green apples.
The new offering is part of a program called Ohio Days, coordinated by Franklin County Public Health. The health department is connecting distributors and
school districts across Ohio, encouraging them to serve one healthy, Ohio-made meal to kids every month.
As students funnel into cafeterias, they’re greeted with a magnetic board displaying Ohio, with markers indicating where each food originated.