State of K-12 foodservice: Community connections

Community partnerships continue to be valuable assets for school nutrition programs, especially when it comes to expanding farm-to-school initiatives and slashing waste. 

The nutrition team at Lee’s Summit R-7 School District in Lee’s Summit, Mo., partnered with Tasty Food Hub, a local organization made up of around 30 farmers, to source fresh fruits and vegetables. The partnership, which began a couple years ago, has enabled the team to expand students’ access to fresh ingredients and minimize the amount of produce students throw away.

The fresh produce often finds its way into the district’s garden bars, where students can choose what fruits and vegetables they want with their meals, making it more likely the food will stay out of the trash can. 

While the bars reduced some of the district’s waste, the team was still seeing some of their packaged items, such as muffins, milk and graham crackers, being tossed.

To help reduce waste even further, share tables were implemented at six elementary schools just before COVID-19. The share tables were popular with students, but once the pandemic hit, the program was put on hold.

This upcoming school year, with buy-in from the district’s principals, Lee’s Summit is rebooting the program, which will now be district-wide. 

“We decided to go big this year, and we have purchased the equipment for all 25 of our buildings, so everybody will be doing the share carts now,” says Director of Nutrition Services Lori Danella. “And it's going to be a program where all the buildings will follow the same guidelines and same rules. Everybody's on the same page.”

The new carts, which come with signage, will offer a more professional and uniform look than the old set-up, Danella says. 

Her team spent the past several months getting principals on board by advertising the new-and-improved program as a way to further reduce waste and give hungry students access to snacks, no matter what their families’ financial background may be. 

“We've got schools that are maybe 5% free and reduced, and we have some that might be 60% free and reduced,” says Danella. “We want the same opportunities for all students. What their classification is shouldn't matter if they want an extra milk or if they're still hungry. They should be able to get something off the share cart.”

Focusing on herbs 

This year, the team will expand its partnership with The Tasty Food Hub to include fresh basil, oregano, rosemary, cilantro and whatever other herbs the farmers are growing. 

“We'll just kind of see what they grow because they're really good about telling us, ‘Hey, you need to try this,’ and they'll even give us ideas,” says Danella. “So we're always open to suggestions from the ones that grow the herbs.”

Danella purchased new knives for staff to use with the herbs and is having a chef come in to teach the prep assistants how to store and prepare the new ingredients.

Many of the herbs will be used in entrees. Oregano, for example, will find its way into pasta dishes, while cilantro will be incorporated into the housemade pico de gallo that is quite popular with students, Danella says. 

Others will act as a garnish to make menu items more eye-catching. 

“The kids look with their eyes,” she says. “We want them to feel like this is a restaurant experience and not just an institutional mill.”

Read more of our 2023 State of K-12 Foodservice report.