Research is very clear that inadequate nutrition negatively impacts academic performance, social development, and the overall health of students. One way to ensure that students eat nutritious meals is to offer more choices. It is very expensive, and therefore, very difficult for a school district to provide a variety of nutritious meal choices for students. As a result, the Sloan-Hendrix School District has contracted with OPAA Food Management to design a program that will provide more nutritious choices for students.
OPAA provides food management services for more than 600 school district cafeterias in five states. Therefore, they have the purchasing power that will enable us to provide more choices for students without increasing our food service program budget. OPAA programs have proven to increase participation significantly while making it very affordable for the school districts in which they serve. OPAA has culinary and nutrition experts that will ensure that the Sloan-Hendrix School District stays in compliance with federal and state regulations while planning nutritious, good tasting meals that students will eat.
Below are some changes you will see for the coming school year.
Breakfast:
• 2 hot meal choices daily
• A choice of cold cereal daily
• A choice of oatmeal daily
• Offer of Grab-N- Go daily (High School)
Lunch:
• 2 traditional meal choices daily
• 1 salad choice daily
• Fresh fruit and vegetable bar daily
• Offer Ala Carte daily (Middle School and High School)
• Offer OPAA-To-Go daily (High School)
• Drink station daily
• Condiment bar daily
In the past, many high school students did not eat breakfast or lunch because of the time it required them to stand in line. This year high school students will have the option for breakfast and lunch service through a program called “OPAA to Go.†Additional information will be provided to high school students on the first day of school regarding the “OPAA to Go†program. High school students will continue to have the option for meal service in the traditional cafeteria setting.
Menus will be available on the school district website that will allow students and parents to click on each menu item. When doing so, a picture of the item will appear along with the nutritional benefits of the item. This will better enable parents to help younger students to decide what they want for breakfast or lunch while enabling the older students to plan their meals daily. http://shsd.k12.ar.us
Menus can also be accessed on smartphones by downloading the free Nutrislice mobile app available on the iTunes App Store for iPhone users or on Google Play for Android-powered smartphones.