By HOLLY GASKILL
Northern Wells’ dining program has seen booming success in recent years.
In January 2019, Northern Wells averaged about 700 lunches daily. While participation rose to roughly 1,200 when all students were eligible for free lunches because of COVID-19, this was expected to fall when lunches returned to normal.
Instead, participation has remained steady this year, decreasing only by 27 students. Ultimately, the cafeterias serve approximately 500 more lunches every day than in 2019.
This increase is largely attributed to changes spearheaded by Raina Sisson, food and nutrition director. In a presentation to the school board on Tuesday, Sisson described how many of these changes have changed the program from the inside out.
As a result, the district now serves at least one fresh vegetable daily and one new fresh fruit weekly. They also feature a variety of meal options and “Try It Tuesdays,” where students are encouraged to try new options like banana smoothies and red pepper hummus.
Additionally, the Food and Nutrition budget is completely self-supported. Food and Nutrition’s funds have increased from $23,000 in July 2020 to $555,000 in July 2022. Sisson said their balance was $875,000 as of Tuesday.
To get here, Sisson first began fine-tuning the district’s use of federal food programs. For example, the school can obtain certain products through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reducing the district’s overall food cost. When Sisson joined the school system, the dining program had over 100 cases of unused green beans.
Now, Sisson uses the program to supplement their daily food offerings, offsetting the cost of every meal by $0.43.
Sisson has also prioritized opportunities for staff development. Notably, all three managers attended a week-long hands-on training before school started last summer.
Sisson hopes to take the three managers to the state and national conferences for school nutrition. Last fall, Sisson attended the Indiana School Nutrition Association conference and received her certification through the association. Sisson also hopes to hold ServSafe certification classes and a training week preceding the upcoming school year.
Overall, Sisson has seen better morale, teamwork and techniques from her staff.
Furthermore, Sisson has focused on relationships between lunchroom staff and the administration, teachers and students, meeting with different parties to hear feedback and ideas about the program. Most recently, Sisson met with the middle school’s student council to give a food demonstration and hear their thoughts.
“It was a great opportunity for me to share about the school lunch, and then hear what they’re saying about it,” Sisson said. “I’ve taken some of the things that they are unhappy with and how can we fix those, and some of them are really easy fixes. I’m really excited for next year to implement them.”
Within the lunchroom itself, Sisson has partnered with Doug Stitt of Sensible Solutions to create new graphics and signs. Sisson said this has transformed the cafeterias, creating a more welcoming environment from the previous “institutional” look.
Similarly, the program assumed the new name“Food and Nutrition,” previously known as “Food Services.” They’ve also adopted a new slogan: “Fight like a knight, eat like a king.”
“We’re really trying to communicate to people that food and nutrition is important,” Sisson said. “You know, we’re not your mom’s lunch lady.”
Because of all this and more, the program has continued to grow.
While this success is encouraging, Sisson said she’s most excited students are getting good, nutritious food. Outside of school, one-third of children won’t eat any fruit, and half won’t have any vegetables. Students are also 44 percent less likely to eat a vegetable when they eat a packed lunch.
“We pretty much let kids have as many fruits and vegetables as they want,” Sisson said.
Moving forward, Sisson is excited to begin serving snacks and lunches to all-day preschool students and add a grab-and-go food cart in the middle school. The program will also add a point-of-sale system to their services as Bethlehem Lutheran and St. Aloysius schools, allowing the schools to complete an online application for free and reduced lunches.
Last but not least, they’re already working on new food items for the fall, including buffalo chicken calzones, wild blueberry smoothies and fajita chicken bowls.
holly@news-banner.com
