Wellness Newsletter
Riverside School, Fall 2017
What's new for school lunch? A Food Services update.
Data from the survey conducted this past March on the elementary school lunch program plus continuous feedback from parents are the primary reasons for the latest changes in Food Services across the district. The following small but significant changes are being made:
- Raising the quality and lowering the number of snack ("extras") options. For example, Rice Krispie treats will no longer be a K-5 grade offering. All Frito Lay chips and General Mills cereal bars have been pulled. Ice cream offered to grades 3-5 will be free from high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and nuts.
- Some replacement snack offerings are: Smartfood Popcorn, Pirate’s Booty, Popchips, Goldfish and Nutrigrain granola bars.
- A new offering being tested is yogurt parfaits with fresh fruit and nut-free granola (currently at the high school and very popular). To see when these parfaits are being offered, check out the latest menu via the district's website.
- More fresh vegetables to be served. Frozen veggies will be limited to corn, edamame and some oven crisp potato options. No more “potato smiles.”
- By the second half of the year, the district is looking to roll out new “Mini Vegetable Bar” carts - would be offered to anyone buying a school lunch.
School lunch survey highlights
Below are some highlights from the elementary school lunch parent survey that support the changes referenced above:
Note: The response rate from Riverside School was 41% vs. an average of 36% across the district. Overall there were 1,575 survey responses.
- 52% of parent respondents across the district indicate they have children who never eat school lunch or do so 1 day a week or less. 30% of respondents participate in school lunch 4-5 days/week.
- Among those that never buy school lunch or do so infrequently, reasons cited most were: I do not like the quality of the food (47%) and I do not like the lunch menu choices (45%).
- Over 65% of all parent respondents do not allow their children to buy a la carte snacks or “extras.”
- Top two improvements parents would like to see: healthier snack and/or dessert options (64%) and better variety of lunch options (57%).
- Two-thirds of parents would like to see more lunch room guidance provided by an adult to assist children with making healthier food choices.
- The vast majority (72%) are willing to pay more (between $1-3 more) for a higher quality lunch offering.
Note: The response rate from Riverside School was 41% vs. an average of 36% across the district. Overall there were 1,575 survey responses.
Wellness at a glance 2017-2018
Interested in getting more involved in Wellness at Riverside? Below is a snap shot of our main initiatives. Questions? Please contact us via riversideschoolwellness@gmail.com.
Allergy Awareness
New this year, our goal is to help increase awareness about food related allergies that affect roughly 8% of young children nationally (and more than 10% in Greenwich public elementary schools, according to our recent district survey). A food allergy awareness week will be planned for May as well as the dissemination of information at various PTA events and in PTA communications over the course of the school year.
Fruit & Veggie Challenge
An annual, week long event where Riverside students are challenged to "eat a rainbow" of healthy foods both in school and at home. Be on the look out for volunteer opportunities for this fun week of fruit and veggie (and smoothie!) tastings served during lunch time in March.
Fitness Challenge
Children are encouraged to be as active as possible during this week leading up to the annual Riverside run. On the Friday of this week, typically, we aim to have the children participate in some fun activities during outdoor recess for which volunteers are needed. Also, in the past, gym teacher Bill Bogardus gets the children moving during morning announcements.