Kids Recipe Resource Guide

FM Staff

BY DIANE RIDGE

Recipe ideas from home, friends and peers are natural places to get ideas for kid menus, but with time and test-kitchen resources at a premium—if an option at all—operators should look to manufacturers and commodity boards to help pave the way to healthful and fun food choices for kids.

"Large and small manufacturers have always wanted to work with schools," says consultant Donna Wittrock, a past president of the School Nutrition Association. "But, they've had to over-come a lot of challenges—state and federal regulations, how reimbursement governs price, what products to develop, and in what particular portion sizes for that market," she says.

Luckily, many learned to deal with such issues. From fortified flat breads and whole grain pasta, to "kid-sized" seafood and meat selections, to a larger assortment of soy products, manufacturers are a great ally in the kids meal game.

And when the customers are kids in K-8 schools, the key is to encourage healthful choices with an atmosphere that keeps the focus on fun.

Diane Ganci, Chartwells regional chef for the Mid Atlantic area, boils it all down to logic. "What is it that kids are looking for? Finger food, anything easy to handle," she says. "Sometimes you just need to look back at the experience of lunchtime, the social ease, the fun of it!"

To that point she has developed some choices that the kids have a hard time resisting, like the approach she refers to as Chartwells pizza "rip and dip" concept. Healthful pizza ingredients are formed into a calzone-shaped entrée and kids are encouraged to rip em' and dip' em into a savory tomato sauce.

Then there's the Thanksgiving Turkey Wrap, a burrito style Thanksgiving meal all rolled up in an easy-to-eat wrap.

Snacking is a big part of a youngster's diet, as growing kids are always hungry. This past spring, Aramark introduced SnackFactor, which capitalizes on that trend and helps kids make better choices.

"Healthy snacks equal healthy energy after all," says Vanessa Blake, Aramark food service director at Ramapo Indian Hills School in New Jersey. The program offers students more than 150 healthy snack options, including organic version of low fat granola bars, cereal bars, baked chips, crackers, yogurt, smoothie beverages and fresh fruits and vegetables.

The items are available at various locations, including the traditional food line, during before and after-school care, in the classroom, and in grab-and-go kiosks and vending machines.

Marsha Carlson, lunchroom manager at Waynesville elementary school in Georgia offers up a list of the typical daily fresh vegetable choices: tossed salad (with Ranch dressing, of course) chef salad, carrot sticks, celery sticks, zucchini sticks.

Zucchini sticks? "Well, they're not really a big hit yet," she says, "but we'll keep trying!"

The hands-on 'courses' offered by Carlson and the faculty are the real hit, she says. The youngest students (pre-k/kindergarteners) observe the culinary staff preparing vegetables and fruit and get their hands in on the bakery production. The scratch-made yeast rolls are 'pinched off' by the students, baked and served family-style at lunchtime!

"Getting kids involved in cooking their own meals may make a positive impact in their lifelong eating habits," she adds.

ABC Muffins
Citrus Chicken Salad
Curry Rice Salad
Grape Kabobs with Honey Peanut Dip
Kiwi Dessert Pizza
Pear Waldorf Salad
Pizza Rolls
Sloppy Tom Sandwich
Thanksgiving Turkey Wrap
Yeast Rolls