How Anchorage SD overhauled menus to be more nutritious and delicious

As the largest district in Alaska, Anchorage School District (ASD) feeds lots of kids—48,000 across 85 school sites to be exact. Up to the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, lunch menus had been focused more on convenience and cost. Unpopular items like sweet potato tots and frozen fish were rife and almost immediately put into the trash the minute they were served.

When Laura Phillips, RD, registered dietitian and menu manager for ASD, came on board a year and a half ago, she got herself acclimated by visiting schools to talk with students about menus. The feedback she got was scathing.

“Students weren’t involved in the menu choices,” Phillips says. “Plus, there were a lot of really low-quality and processed foods that no one liked. We had an enormous amount of waste and participation was not growing.”

As she visited schools, she found that students weren’t the only ones unhappy with menus. Teachers, principals and even foodservice workers wanted to see sweeping changes made.

“It became very evident what they didn’t want,” she says. “And they were open with the types of foods they did want. So I made a list.”

Not surprisingly, students wanted foods they were familiar with, Mexican- and Asian-inspired meals and better quality, more healthful ingredients.

“I found the healthiest way possible to introduce the types of items students were asking for onto our menus,” says Phillips. “For example, we were able to find a bean and cheese burrito on a whole-grain tortilla made with low-fat cheese that they love! Same with a cheese quesadilla, and even nachos. These don’t sound like healthy things, but we were able to find healthier versions of them and the response has been phenomenal.”

She also added tangerine chicken, a Thai sweet chili chicken, a honey Sriracha chicken and even General Tso chicken.

“My middle and high schoolers were asking for spicier foods,” she says. “So we were able to find a Sriracha seasoning that we sprinkle on baked chicken wings or crispy chicken patties and it completely transforms the item. The students are so excited.”

Since it’s still early into the new menus, which launched at the beginning of the 2016 school year, the district doesn’t have any concrete figures on participation increase, but Phillips estimates its substantial.

“There is considerably less waste in the trash cans, too” she adds. “And when I visit schools, students, staff and teachers approach me to thank me for the changes we’ve made to menus. The impact has been profound.”

In order to get 85 school sites on board with nearly 20 new menus, Phillips spent a great deal of time visiting kitchens and working with foodservice employees to adjust dishes based on equipment and ability.

“Now, even though some of the dishes are more labor intense, the staff is excited to be serving food that students actually want to eat,” says Phillips.

As part of the change, ASD went from a three-week menu cycle to a four-week menu cycle. And while food costs have risen, they’ve been offset by the increase in participation.

“At the start of this, the administration was enthusiastic with me about supporting vast menu changes,” says Phillips. “They wanted to take risks and make a big difference. They wanted the students to know we hear them and that their voices matter in the menus we write.”

Moving forward in the 2017-2018 school year, Phillips will continue to gather feedback and evaluate numbers as she writes new menus based on student demand.

“If they tell me what they want, I’ll find a way to make it happen,” she says.

One way Phillips has introduced new dishes to see how they do with students before they are added into the menu rotation is by offering special event meals once a month.

“It’s almost like running a special in a restaurant to see how it does,” she says. “If it goes over well, we’ll bring it into the menu cycle.”

The meals have ranged in theme from a Hobbit meal—which was a stew—to celebrate the anniversary of the book by J.R.R. Tolkien to an Italian/American meal featuring housemade manicotti.

“It took our central kitchen three weeks to fill 20,000 manicottis,” says Phillips.

Coming up in March, ASD will be doing an all Alaska-grown products day with breaded Alaskan pollock, potatoes, broccoli and carrots as well as blueberry muffins.

“Food can have a huge impact on a student’s ability both physically and academically,” says Phillips. “We’re starting to see that impact across the entire district. It’s an exciting time for ASD and we’ll continue to move forward improving menus and meals for the sake of our students.”