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Pittsburg USD 250 this week is joining with other districts across the country to celebrate National School Lunch Week. District officials said the program is the culmination of a months-long campaign designed to inspire students to “get excited about healthy school lunch choices.”
The theme of this year’s NSLW is “School Lunch – What’s On Your Tray,” and the district’s lunch menu this week includes recipes chosen by the National School Nutrition Association. Entrees this week will include Champion Chicken and Orange Rice, Step-It-Up Spaghetti, Say “Cheese” Cheesy Steak Sandwich, Action-Packed Chicken Fajita Wrap and Reach Your Peak Twisted Pizza Choice.
Students can also participate in this annual event’s activities by visiting www.whatsonyourtray.org to take a personality quiz to reveal which of the site’s cartoon characters best fit their personality. Each character comes paired with healthy eating tips.
Kelly Horn, USD 250 nutrition services director, said the program is an important way to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy diet.
“Participating in National School Lunch Week is important to us because we firmly believe in the importance of providing healthy, well-balanced meals at school,” Horn said. “The ‘What’s On Your Tray’ campaign is a great way to highlight and promote the value of nutritious meals to a student’s school day and overall life.”
The campaign, which will be featured in school cafeterias nationwide is sponsored by the non-profit Schoo Nutrition Association and the Milk Processers Education Program.
Superintendent Destry Brown said he has high hopes for the program.
“Anything we can do to encourage the kids to eat well and provide nutritional things for them is great for the kids and great for us,” Brown said.
The federally-funded National School Lunch Program serves more than 31 million children every school day and provides nutritional low-cost and free meals to students. The program, which has been in place for more than 60 years, requires meals to meet federal nutrition standards. Those include:
• Meals are based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, meaning they contain no more than 30% of calories from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat.
• School lunches include fruits and vegetables, grains and proteins as well as milk, and they must provide one-third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.
• Meals are served in age-appropriate serving sizes meaning you get the amount of food that your body needs.
Pittsburg USD 250 this week is joining with other districts across the country to celebrate National School Lunch Week. District officials said the program is the culmination of a months-long campaign designed to inspire students to “get excited about healthy school lunch choices.”
The theme of this year’s NSLW is “School Lunch – What’s On Your Tray,” and the district’s lunch menu this week includes recipes chosen by the National School Nutrition Association. Entrees this week will include Champion Chicken and Orange Rice, Step-It-Up Spaghetti, Say “Cheese” Cheesy Steak Sandwich, Action-Packed Chicken Fajita Wrap and Reach Your Peak Twisted Pizza Choice.
Students can also participate in this annual event’s activities by visiting www.whatsonyourtray.org to take a personality quiz to reveal which of the site’s cartoon characters best fit their personality. Each character comes paired with healthy eating tips.
Kelly Horn, USD 250 nutrition services director, said the program is an important way to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy diet.
“Participating in National School Lunch Week is important to us because we firmly believe in the importance of providing healthy, well-balanced meals at school,” Horn said. “The ‘What’s On Your Tray’ campaign is a great way to highlight and promote the value of nutritious meals to a student’s school day and overall life.”
The campaign, which will be featured in school cafeterias nationwide is sponsored by the non-profit Schoo Nutrition Association and the Milk Processers Education Program.
Superintendent Destry Brown said he has high hopes for the program.
“Anything we can do to encourage the kids to eat well and provide nutritional things for them is great for the kids and great for us,” Brown said.
The federally-funded National School Lunch Program serves more than 31 million children every school day and provides nutritional low-cost and free meals to students. The program, which has been in place for more than 60 years, requires meals to meet federal nutrition standards. Those include:
• Meals are based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, meaning they contain no more than 30% of calories from fat, and less than 10 percent from saturated fat.
• School lunches include fruits and vegetables, grains and proteins as well as milk, and they must provide one-third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.
• Meals are served in age-appropriate serving sizes meaning you get the amount of food that your body needs.
