Creative menus respond to kids' needs and tastes - New Jersey school case study

Food and Nutrition, April, 1987 by Marion Wig

Creative Menus Respond to Kids' Needs and Tastes

Food service director RuthMoskowitz has learned during her 14-year career with the Elizabeth, New Jersey, school district, that being adaptable is a necessary ingredient in running a successful food service operation.

By being adaptable, she manages tokeep up with the food preferences of the 15,000 students she serves daily. She is also able to use USDA commodities imaginatively and to find ways to adjust her program to accommodate students who have special needs or are in schools without adequate food service equipment.

The majority of the studentsMoskowitz serves come from families whose children qualify for free and reduced-priced meals. Seventy-eight percent of the children participating in the Elizabeth program receive free lunches; 10 percent pay a reduced price for their meals.

Food service has dual role

Moskowitz feels school food serviceprograms should teach as well as feed children. "School food service should be much more than a filling station,' she says. "We should provide a wide variety of foods so students can educate their tastebuds.' Her feelings are evident in her enthusiasm for using USDA-donated foods.

Moskowitz uses all of the USDAfoods offered to her. A former test kitchen supervisor for Lipton, she often experiments to come up with new ways to use commodities.

For example, she uses donatedlemon juice to make salad dressings. She bakes donated honey into cookies and bread, and also uses donated figs and sweet potatoes in fig bars and muffins. She has even created a whip using donated apricots.

"Commodities are the basis for ourprogram,' Moskowitz says. "We have to purchase very little on the outside to complement the foods that are offered to us. The commodities are so varied that we plan our menus around them.

"If you don't plan the menus aroundcommodities, you have to oeprate at a loss or charge the child a much higher cost for the lunch. We don't refuse anything.'

Lunch program is popular

Lunch participation in the 28 units ofthe Elizabeth school system averages 80 percent. Moskowitz and her staff work hard to provide nourishing, well-balanced meals that appeal to students' tastes.

"We observe the product selection infast food establishments--and we have them all--and we notice what seems to be going and try to get that product into our cafeterias,' Moskowitz says.

"We serve some of the same itemsthat fast food outlets offer because we feel that's how to keep the students coming back to our cafeterias.'

In addition to the more standard farelike hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries, Moskowitz offers her students tacos, pizza, turkey in pita pockets, kidney bean salads, fish filets on buns, Texas beef barbecue, onion rings, and Philadelphia-style steak sandwiches.

Medleys of vegetables in specialsauce round out the midday meal service, and there is also an extensive salad bar, which is popular with students concerned about weight control.

Adjustments made for special needs

Helping children with special needsis a priority for the administrators and food service team of the Elizabeth school district.

Among the students for whomthey've developed special programs are pregnant teenagers, who may need encouragement and support to stay in school.

"We believe in trying to do somethingto break the poverty cycle,' says Moskowitz. "If we're able to keep a girl in high school until she completes her education, we may equip her with skills to take a job and keep it.'

Moskowitz has adapted breakfastand lunch recipes to more than meet the nutritional needs of the pregnant teens. "We have dairy products--milk and cheese--and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables available to them,' she says.

As soon as the pregnancy begins toshow, the teens can attend classes in a different area of the school. Along with their regular curricula, home economics and secretarial courses are stressed.

After the girls give birth, the babiescan be brought to a day care center on campus. The mothers have breakfast with their babies and then go to school.

Some schools have preplated meals

One of the biggest challenges forMoskowitz was starting a food service program for children in the dozen elementary schools that do not have adequate food service equipment. After careful examination of various options, she decided to serve preplated meals in these schools.

"I found after doing some researchthat the most nutritious, safest kind of food delivery for schools without adequate equipment would be frozen, preplated meals,' she explains.

For handicapped students who attendthese schools, Moskowitz expanded the meal service to include breakfast. This is because the special needs children are older or larger than other children in their schools, and the preplated meals are portion controlled to meet the needs of the smaller children. The added breakfasts provide the extra food the special needs children require.

Statistics show that the preplatedmeals are popular. Sixty-nine to 100 percent of the students participate in the lunch program in these satellite schools. As in her other schools, Moskowitz serves a variety of foods the children enjoy.