Farm to Cafeteria Table

Once they finally mastered the symbiotic balance between fish and plants in their innovative aquaponic garden, Jordan Academy of Technology and Careers students cultivated enough lettuce to stock two high school cafeteria salad bars for a few days in May.

 “Nutrition services provided funds for it, so the goal is to always be able to produce some type of food for the district,” JATC teacher and Jordan School District Farm to School Coordinator Margaret Ward said.

Produce from the school’s south campus two-acre garden has also been utilized for the district’s summer meal service.

“This is really the first season that we’re using the produce that we produce in our grow boxes in the schools,” Ward said. “Yesterday we were over at Columbia Elementary and we served cucumbers that we had grown in the garden at our building. And our edamame is going to be ready next week, so we’ll serve the edamame, as well.”

Occasional state-sponsored farm-to-school initiatives, such as Squash Hunger Day (held in July) and Apple Crunch Day (held in October), provide locally grown squash or apples for every student in participating schools. However, Jordan School District Dietician Katie Cole would like to incorporate fresh local produce in all 30,000 meals served each day in the district’s 64 schools. Despite her enthusiasm, she admits it’s not currently feasible.

“Because we are such a large district, and we have such a large amount on our orders, it’s not always realistic to get every single thing on our menu from a local farm,” Cole said. However, for the summer meal service, which provides breakfast and lunch at just five locations June through August, she has worked with JATC teachers and local farmers to provide berries, snap peas and other fresh produce for just one school at a time.

“We’re hoping we can do some more things like this throughout the school year, but it does, right now, need to be a one-time thing, just because it’s easier to feed 100 kids local produce than thousands,” Cole said.

What’s on the menu?

“The kids are really getting an amazing variety of food every single day,” Cole said.

Chicken nuggets, corndogs and pizza remain the most popular school cafeteria menu items, and as part of a complete meal, they meet federal requirements for fruit/vegetables, meat/protein, milk and whole grains, and the limits for sodium and saturated fats.

School meals must meet federal regulations in order to qualify for reimbursement of a portion of the meal costs. School nutrition staff members develop menu items that maximize compliance, often making simple ingredient substitutions such as replacing white flour with whole grain flour in desserts and substituting chicken hot dogs for beef.

What’s not on the menu

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced changes to school meal nutrition regulations effective July 2027, and for the first time, there will be limits on sugar. The biggest change will be limits on added sugars in specific menu items such as cereal, yogurt and flavored milk, as well as an overall weekly sugar limit.

“The new standards build on the great progress that school meals have made already and address remaining challenges—including reducing sugar in school breakfasts,” USDA Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long said. “These updates also make it easier for schools to access locally sourced products, benefiting both schools and the local economy.”

Schools and food manufacturers have three years to rework their recipes to be in compliance with the new regulations. Jordan School District Nutrition Services Director Katie Bastian said her department is already looking at small changes that can be made immediately, such as ordering lower-sodium ketchup and reducing sugar in their recipes.

Because Jordan District schools have full-service kitchens and make many menu items from scratch, new recipes to meet the new regulations can be developed, reviewed and tested.

“The nutrition standards are changing, and we need to have control over our ingredients, and cooking from scratch is a way to do that,” Bastian said.

Ultimately, new recipes and products have to pass the taste test, Cole said.

“We definitely have a process here in our district to make sure that the things that we’re developing and giving the kids not only fall within regulations, but it’s something that they’ll actually eat,” Cole said. “We want them to enjoy the food that we’re giving them.”

The cost of paying (and not paying) for school lunch

School meal prices, which increased last year in Jordan District for the first time in about 13 years, will remain the same this coming school year, with elementary school students paying $1.05 for breakfast and $2.00 for lunch, and secondary school students paying $1.25 for breakfast and $2.25 for lunch. Secondary school kitchens also sell a la carte items for a few dollars.

Because the federal food program only reimburses one lunch and breakfast per student per day, if a student gets back in line for more food, they are charged $2.50 for a second breakfast and $4.10 for a second lunch. 

For families with financial limitations, the Free and Reduced Meal Program eliminates or reduces meal prices to 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. Applications can be filled out in schools or online. Bastian emphasizes the importance of families reapplying for this program at the beginning of every school year and any time their circumstances change throughout the year.

“If you have another baby, or someone comes home from a mission, or your job changes, apply again,” Bastian said.

When families don’t apply for Free and Reduced Meals and cannot pay their lunch balances, students are still provided meals, but the school becomes responsible for the unpaid balances. Bastian said, while community donations to pay-off overdue lunch accounts are appreciated, this may discourage families from applying for the Free and Reduced Meal Program. Fewer participants then affect the school’s Title 1 status qualifications and further burden school budgets. 

The final ingredient

Five hundred Jordan School District employees are involved in developing and serving healthy and delicious meals for students and for adapting menus for those with food allergies, religious and cultural preferences and special needs.

“All the kitchen managers in our district really love their job and love working with the kids and creating amazing food, and I think that makes a huge difference,” Cole said. λ