Students tour school cafeteria

Fourth graders at Acushnet Elementary School have been getting a behind-the-scenes look at how the school cafeteria operates, and a lesson in good nutrition at the same time. The learning experience is thanks to tours offered by cafeteria manager Shelley Mello, better known as the “lunch lady.”

Mello said the in-house field trips are part of the fourth grade health curriculum, with a focus on teaching the youngsters how eating right can keep them healthy and growing strong.

The students start their tours with a brief talk on how to fill their plates with the right foods to make a balanced meal. They learn why fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy products all get a place on the menu  — because they contribute to their good health.

“Often, we tell them what to eat, but they don’t know why," said Mello, a veteran with 13 years in the elementary and middle school cafeterias. "If we can make them understand better why they should be eating certain foods, they may want them more."

She explains how “fruits and veggies are full of vitamins and minerals that help you feel healthy and give you more energy,” while the grains found in breads, rice and pasta "help you feel full longer, and also provide the vitamins and minerals needed by growing young bodies."

When her class recently toured the facility, fourth grader Emma Johnson noted that one additional benefit of grains was “they help you digest your food, too.” Clearly, she had been paying attention in health class.

Mello tells her visitors how proteins help the body’s immune system fight disease and build strong bones and muscles, as do dairy products. With an engaging set of questions, Mello gets the children to identify exactly what foods the cafeteria puts on the menu to provide choices from all the important food groups.

No longer are the daily selections limited to one hot meal or a soup and sandwich choice, she notes. These days, a la carte menus allow youngsters to build their own tacos, order up a fruit smoothie, or choose from a buffet-style selection of fresh carrot and celery sticks.

Something new and different is put on the menu each month to encourage the children to try new foods.  Mello said, “We’ve made it so they get a lot of choices,” which has helped increase the number of meals served in the cafeteria program. “The more choices they have, the more participation you get.”

Mello said more than 60 percent of students were typically buying their lunches, a number which has risen a few more percentage points since the popular yogurt and fruit smoothies were put on the menu.

Part of the health lesson is teaching the youngsters which foods belong to the different food groups so they can learn how to make a balanced meal. A pair of photo-laden “try something new” boards are filled with pictures of adventurous diners who have tested foods they have never tasted before. It has proven very successful, Mello said. It seems everyone wants their photo added to the boards.

But the tour was not all just lectures and learning. Mello clearly enjoyed every minute of the visit and tried to make sure the children do, too. The youngsters who don’t like beans heard the lunch lady admit with a laugh, “I hide them in the taco dip, so you don’t know you’re eating them!”