Food Truck Promotes Orange County Schools Meal Program

Orange County Public Schools Food & Nutrition Services has launched a Truck of the Month tour as the district's food truck will visit Central Florida middle and high schools, serving three new menu items selected by student vote, through December. The entrees—Warm Asian Chicken Salad, Green Bean Chicken Casser-Bowl and Asian Beef Teriyaki—were developed in partnership with food vendor Uncle Ben’s to encourage students to eat more school-provided meals.

“The Truck of the Month tour gives us a way to educate students on the tasty, nutritious meals being served in our cafeterias,” says Lora Gilbert, senior director of food and nutrition services. “We knew we had to get creative to attract our students’ attention—and a food truck was a natural fit to combine our services with an eye-catching pop culture trend.”

After purchasing lunch from the food truck, students can take an iPad survey to share feedback. At the end of the tour, the most popular item will be added to cafeteria menus for the 2015-2016 school year. School officials are already seeing positive results from the program. On average, after the food truck visits a campus, 46% of students who previously did not eat, or ate infrequently, in the cafeteria increased their participation to three to five times per week.

“Students always look forward to eating from the food truck,” Gilbert says, adding that it serves about 400 meals during each campus visit. “It’s been a big hit!”