Manchester Schools First in State to Receive Silver Food Service Award

Three Manchester elementary schools were awarded silver status in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's HealthierUS Schools Challenge, making them the first schools in the state to receive the honor.

"It's huge," said Jeff Hanaway, general manager for Sodexo, the district's food service supplier.

Hanaway spoke during the March 16 Manchester Board of Education and said that Whiting, Ridgeway and Manchester Township elementary schools met the award criteria, which includes serving students certain amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains throughout the week.

Each of the three schools will be presented with a $1,000 award and plaque from the USDA. 

Gold awards were within sight for the schools, but the average daily student participation in school lunch purchases fell short of the required 70 percent, Hanaway said.

"Even though all of our menus met or exceeded the gold standards, we would not be able to reach that status," he said. "We tried. We went back two years and the closest we could get was 69.1 or 69.2 percent. But we are going to continue to monitor all our elementary schools and once we get a month with 70, percent we are going to resubmit for gold. We want to be the first school in New Jersey to be gold, as opposed to just silver."

According to the USDA, the challenge was established in 2004 to encourage schools throughout the country to create healthier meal programs and promote physical activity. 

Hanaway said that 37 states participate in the challenge.

Dietician Tracy Kinsel-Cooper, who had helped a Santa Rosa, Fla., school win the silver award, was hired by Sodexo last year to help redesign menus, which Hanaway said now feature whole grain chicken nuggets, patties, breads and pastas, light and fat-free dressings and brown rice. Kinsel-Cooper also works with parents to ensure that children with allergies are not exposed to foods which may be hazardous to their health.

"The issue was not creating the menu, but to find the products and work with the suppliers to be able to have them delivered to our local," Hanaway said. "Once we found those items, we needed to make sure that they tasted good. We trialed at YAC, our youth advisory committee, and slowly worked them into our menu."

There is always the chance that students will not respond well to new menu items, which could lead to less money for schools as more students bringing potentially unhealthy foods from home and losses, said Superintendent of Schools David Trethaway.

"You could sell french fries and everybody would be happy and even make more money at times," he said. "But [Hanaway] made the decision to go healthier and the board obviously supports that."

Hanaway said that the average percentages of students who buy school lunches in the three elementary schools range from the high-50 percent to upper-60 percent, depending on school.

Participation in the challenge has helped Manchester schools stay ahead of government guidelines. According to Kinsel-Cooper, in the next two years "50 percent of the items we're offering have to be whole grain, and we're already meeting that standard," she said. "Four years from now, everything has to be whole grain. Things are going to be changing, but we are definitely on our way with that."

The superintendent said that introducing students to these healthy menus at school will stick with them as they grow. 

"To hear kids saying 'this is good,' and they're talking about salad, those are all positive things, because those are lifetime things," he said.

Hanaway said that he hopes removing fried foods and giving students healthier options will translate to better habbits at home and can serve as an example of a school district making the right choices.

"We don't want to be that statistic or school district on the news that says 'they're giving them fries every single day.' We made a conscious decision years ago and we just keep moving ahead and moving forward," he said. "I love what I do, and I get emotional because I care. And I know how much hard work it's taken everyone to get to this level."