California cafeteria serves up taste test
In the photo at left, fifth grade student Barren Peters, 11, makes a face after sampling a whole wheat biscuit (above). The biscuits seemed to be the least desired item the students sampled.
In the photo below, eighth grader Devan Altman (left), 14, samples a biscuit as fellow eighth-grade student Chyanne Wolpink, 14, watches for her reaction. Beside them sixth-grade student Samantha Schwalb, 12, writes her comments on a survey.
In the bottom left photo, a survey filled out by a California Area Middle School student sits among some of the breakfast items that were sampled.
Food Service Director Amy Keeler hands out samples for the students of California Area Middle School during a breakfast taste test.
Holly Tonini
Biscuits seemed to be the least desired item the students sampled.
Holly Tonini
Eigth grader Devan Altman (left), 14, samples a biscuit as fellow eighth grade student Chyanne Wolpink, 14, watches for her reaction. Beside them sixth grade student Samantha Schwalb, 12, writes her comments on a survey.
Holly Tonini
A survey filled out by a California Area Middle School student sits among some of the breakfast items that were sampled.
Chocolate oatmeal bars are in, butterscotch oatmeal bars are out — at least as far as students at California Area Intermediate Middle and Middle School are concerned.
A group of students recently participated in a taste test of proposed breakfast foods for the school cafeteria, sampling 10 products that could make their way onto the menu in the future.
Fourteen students in grades 5-8 participated in the taste test, with many of them saying they sometimes eat breakfast at home, but often don’t eat breakfast at all.
“Intermediate middle and middle school is the level where I have the least participation. That’s the group I’m trying to stress the importance of breakfast with, whether it’s here or at home, but we know that oftentimes they would rather get 10 more minutes of sleep,” said Amy Keeler, the district’s food service director. “We have to educate them that it’s important to eat breakfast. At that age, they are conscious of their looks and their weight, so we have to get through to them that those who eat breakfast are at a healthier weight and do better in school. We want to make it convenient for them so they can get their food and go socialize.”
Xavier Reed, an eighth-grade student from California, said breakfast usually isn’t high on his morning agenda.
“I wake up late, so I usually eat here (school) more than at home, but I usually don’t eat breakfast that much,” Reed said. “I didn’t really think it was that important, and I’m not usually that hungry in the morning. If I saw these chocolate chip bars at breakfast, I’d definitely eat.”
Nicole Clark, a sixth-grade teacher in the district, agreed with Reed regarding the chocolate chip oatmeal bars, even though she wasn’t officially part of the taste test.
“It wasn’t too sweet; it wasn’t dry; the texture was just right,” Clark said. “Healthy food can be good.”
Nicole Carson, a seventh-grader from Coal Center, also said she rarely eats breakfast, but would if the chocolate chip oatmeal bars were available. Like many of the students in the taste test, she likes most of the items, except for the butterscotch oatmeal bars, the blueberry mini waffles and the whole wheat biscuits, which were widely disliked.
Keeler said nearly all of the products tested contained whole grains in order to meet mandated nutritional guidelines.
“In an effort to get a jump start on next year’s guidelines, we switched the flavored milk to skim milk. We didn’t have any complaints,” Keeler said.
Keeler said the district offers a complete breakfast of juice, milk and either two servings of a grain, such as pancakes or a breakfast bar, or a grain and a protein such as pancakes and sausage on a stick or breakfast pizza. One of the new items for testing was miniature french toast, a product so new Pillsbury hasn’t designed a label for it yet, Keeler said.
“They added more egg to the product, so it counts as one grain and one protein,” Keeler said.
Keeler said 41 percent of the students in the district could be getting breakfast for no more than 30 cents a day under the free and reduced meal program, but participation is no where near that level. Keeler said that at the start of the 2010-11 school year about 16 percent of the students in grades kindergarten through eighth ate breakfast at the school. This year, 22 percent of the elementary/middle school students are eating the school breakfast.