Wis. school district launches food feedback app

BROOKFIELD, Wis. — How would your child rate Swanson Elementary School's grilled cheese sandwich for lunch? Or the spaghetti at Wisconsin Hills Middle School?

A new online program in the Elmbrook School District is redefining the term "feedback."

Near the end of the 2013-14 school year, the Elmbrook School District launched a new "Nutrislice" application that can be accessed online or through a smartphone.

Nutrislice allows students in a participating school district to look through the cafeteria menu for the week.

The program lists each menu item and identifies the associated calories, cholesterol, sodium, and other nutrition information for the food selections.

"Lately, there have been a lot of questions about nutritional information for school lunch programs (across the country)," said Cheryl Peil, Elmbrook's food and nutrition director. "This app gives students an idea of what they're eating and what the nutritional value is for each item. If they're counting carbs or calories, they can definitely get that information."

The new smartphone-age Nutrislice program is a far-cry from the traditional cafeteria menu attached to the refrigerator at home, Peil said.

Not only can students look at the nutritional information of each menu item, they can also "rate" the item and provide their own input.

"Students are always into technology and (smartphone) apps and stuff like that," Peil said. "It's a very common tool that the kids will know how to use. Nutrislice is nice because it's personalized for them, in whichever Elmbrook school they attend."

But, surprisingly, the high school students aren't the ones actively commenting on the food items.

"The elementary kids give us plenty of comments, and they're often pretty cute," Peil said.

Comments range from a simple "very good" or "yum!," to more extensive commentary.

The celery sticks served at Burleigh Elementary were called "Amazing! Life changing," from one anonymous