More good news coming our way from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

The Milwaukee Public Schools system is making efforts to improve the nutritional quality of the meals it offers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The school system has partnered with the national nonprofit Growing Power, Inc., to incorporate more vegetables into the district's snack program and improve the nutritional quality of the schools' lunches and vending machine options. Individual schools are also working with local farmers to include more fruits and vegetables on school lunch menus.

For example, this school year Oconomowoc High School has worked with local farmers to provide potatoes, apples, pomegranates and jicama as part of school meals. In addition, several Milwaukee-area schools have joined an initiative launched by food service management company Taher Inc., to add a professional chef to their food service staff. According to the Journal Sentinel, having someone on site to create the meals from scratch affords schools the opportunity to experiment with a variety of foods and better monitor the nutritional value of menu offerings (Hetzner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/16/09; Growing Power Web site).

Oconomowoc High isn't the only school involved - parents at Highland Community School also spearheaded an effort that has resulted in once-monthly lunches catered by Outpost Natural Foods. Since last fall, Highland students have dined on such dishes as Alaskan wild-caught cod, organic sweet potato fries, chicken vegetable shepherd's pie and funky monkey banana bread.

The Sntinel also included feedback from students and staff in its story:

Making sure they taste good also makes it more likely students will opt for the healthier choices over the always popular pizza, burgers and fries.

Oconomowoc sophomore Shannon O'Brien said she usually eats the chef-prepared meals at her school. "I think it's really good," she said. "It's just expensive sometimes."

At $4 per meal, Shoemake's dishes are a little more costly than the average $2.75 spent on other lunch products. Students say they're worth it.

"A lot of the things he prepares look really delicious, and they're definitely different from the normal school food, cafeteria-type food that you get," Oconomowoc senior Bridgette Well said.

Although Shoemake is at Oconomowoc High School four times a week, he also spends one day per month at Nature Hill and Silver Lake intermediate schools, as well as University Lake School in Delafield. His favorite meal to prepare is fish tacos, because many of the students have never eaten them before. Pad Thai and a risotto bar are other favorites, both for him and the students.

"It does take a lot of labor, especially when we're using lots of fresh produce, not everything's coming out of a box," Shoemake said. "But, in the end, it's all worth it."

 

• Oconomowoc
• Milwaukee
• school
• lunch
• food
• farm
• to
• fresh
• vegetables
• nutritious
• tasty