Georgia students help set standards for school meals

Georgia Students Help Set Standards For School Meals

More and more schools are merchandising the school lunch program by customizing food for their students. Janie Bowles, school food service director in Rockdale County, Georgia, is doing this by developing quality standards that are based on student preferences.

Took part in recipe tests

This past school year, Rockdale was invited to help USDA test quantity recipes for a reprint of the USDA recipe card file. The updated recipes card file will contain 150 newly standardized school lunch recipes to help cooks and school lunch managers plan meals and utilize USDAdonated commodities.

When USDA's Food and Nutrition Service asked states to test recipes for the reprint, Annette Bomar, administrator of Georgia's School and Community Food and Nutrition Programs, selected Rockdale as the one test site in the state. "We selected Rockdale County,' she says, "because the food service program is so well organized and managed.'

Besides helping USDA, Bomar and Bowles saw the test as an opportunity to use the USDA recipe card file as a basis for customizing recipes to student preferences. Rockdale food service managers were enthusiastic about working with students on the project.

Schools tested variety of recipes

"Each of our schools was given USDA recipes to try along with their own recipes for the items,' Bowles explains. "Between January and May of this year, we held student meetings and taste panels to evaluate the finished products and to help determine food choices for each school.

"It's hard to determine what everybody likes,' she adds. "There is a wide range of preferences. Some of the recipes I personally thought should be changed others thought were great.'

Bowles is now putting together a standard set of USDA and school recipes that individual food service managers can modify with minor changes for their particular schools.

FNS food service systems specialist John Friese is Southeast regional coordinator for USDA's recipe standardization project. According to Friese, food quality standards are tools that can help schools offer their customers consistently good meals.

"When we talk about food quality standards,' he explains, "we are talking about the taste of the food, the temperature of the food, and how it looks. Commercial food outlets have standards that are met every day of the week. Individual schools can have their own standards, too.'

Often there is a wide variety in the appearance and taste of an item due to the interpretation of a standardized recipe. Food quality standards can insure that cooks prepare food the way their customers like it.

Chili, for example, is a standard product that may vary from school to school based on student's likes and dislikes. "Some students like it very soupy, while others like to eat it with a fork,' Friese says.

Friese stresses that food quality standards and choice menus should go hand in hand. While tests can show how a majority of students may like an item prepared, there will always be differences in tastes. The best way to appeal to the greatest number of customers is by giving them plenty of choices.

"With a choice menu,' says Friese, "you can select foods that meet your own personal standards.'

Project results will be shared

This fall in Rockdale, students are more likely to be eating chili and other favorites prepared the way they like them, thanks to the food quality standards Bowles and her staff have developed.

Bomar is looking forward to expanding the Rockdale project to other parts of the state. She has asked Bowles to present the results of her project to a statewide meeting of food service directors in November.

For more information, contact:

Annette Bomar School Food and Nutrition Section State Department of Education 1658 Twin Towers East Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Telephone: (404) 656-2457

Photo: Along with other students in Rockdale County, Georgia, these elementary school children helped test a variety of recipes for school meals. Test results will help their schools develop quality standards.

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