Any parents who ever have tried to provide a meal to their children that is both nutritious and delicious know that young taste buds are fickle things.
Imagine, then, the challenge before Julie Garcia, Director of Food Service for the School District.
Faced with providing a District-wide menu that meets requirements for nutrition and stands up to the varied tastes of Culver City students, Ms. Garcia has some extra help this year – the students themselves.
“I can’t write my menu based on my taste buds,” admitted Ms. Garcia, who has reached out to students to get a better sense of what they like and what they don’t.
They Want Larger Portions
She met with students at El Rincon Elementary School earlier this school year and provided them with four new menu options:
Chicken rings, pizza meatballs, pizza on a stick and breakfast bagel sticks.
“They loved the chicken rings and meatballs,” said Ms. Garcia, adding that they had plenty of suggestions as well. “They didn’t like that the pizza stick came in a wrapper. It took too long to get to it!”
Then, in January, Ms. Garcia received a petition from fourth-graders at El Marino Language School. They wanted larger portions when they ordered chicken nuggets.
Ms. Garcia responded by gathering up new food items and taking her message right to the students again.
Taste Test Results in Testy Answers
“We tried orange chicken, chow mein and pizza,” she said after asking the students to provide written assessments of each dish.
The results were both funny and helpful.
“It tastes horrible,” said one student of the chow mein. “I spit it out. It tastes like a dry Mexican soup.”
Another called the pizza “greasy, but ‘gud’.”
A third budding chef told Ms. Garcia the orange chicken was “a little too mushy. It could be cooked a little longer, and could be spicier.”
The student comments will be taken to heart as Ms. Garcia prepares her menus for next school year.
“I’ll do orange chicken next year, but I won’t do it with chow mein,” she said. “We’ll do it with steamed rice.”
Ms. Garcia has more food tastings in store for students next year. She might even give students a first-hand glimpse into how hard it is to satisfy both them and the federal mandated nutritional requirements.
“I’d like to go into elementary school classrooms with my computer and work with them to write a menu,” she said. “If you want nachos, fine. But what do we need to have to balance that out in terms of calories, fat, sodium and other requirements?”
Mr. Maleman may be contacted at gmaleman@aol.com
