School Food Service Blog
Are rising food costs getting the best of you? Is sourcing and preparing the healthiest foods a tribulation? Is food waste a weekly heartache? The Wild About School Food Blog is here to help you with some of the key challenges of your busy and demanding job.
Reducing Serving Costs:
Get the inside scoop on ways to stretch your commodity food dollars
Improving Student Participation:
Access proven school recipes that students love
Addressing Operational Concerns:
Get easy-to-serve bulk recipes, using limited ingredients
Delivering Health and Nutrition:
Meet USDA guidelines and get the credit you deserve
New York School Nutrition Chefs Prefer Flavor of Wild Blueberries in Taste Test
Former public school Chef Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro, SNS (or Chef Sam as she’s known) now spends her time developing resources and training school nutrition professionals across the country as the Executive Chef of Healthy School Recipes. Every summer for the past eight years, she and Healthy School Recipes Executive Director, Catharine… Read More
Most Popular Menu Item: Chicken and Waffles with Wild Blueberry Dipping Sauce
Jeanne Reilly started her career in the food service sector and was a commercial baker before moving into nutrition. For the last 25 years, she has worked in school nutrition programs, and is now the Director of School Nutrition at Maine’s RSU 14 Windham/Raymond School District (K-12). Reilly is known… Read More
Easy Creative Recipes That Keep Kids Cleaning Their Plates
As the culinary champion for Stanislaus County Probation Juvenile Hall in Modesto, California, Carrie Van Roekel, SNS, faces the daily challenge of making sure the kids in her care really enjoy what they’re eating and are getting the nutrients they need. “Because these kids are confined and only live here… Read More
New England Schools Go Wild with Recipe Contest
The Abbey Group is a food service management company providing 40,000 (less now with Covid-19) school meals a day across New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. They offer a school nutrition program that highlights local/New England ingredients, quality meals and great customer service. To that end, the Abbey Group started… Read More
A Wild Challenge in South Carolina
There’s something a little bit WILD going on in the South Carolina school nutrition system. At the recent South Carolina School Nutrition Conference, a full-blown Chopped Challenge took place testing participants’ cooking skills to the max and resulting in one very excited 1st place winner. Four teams of school nutrition staffers… Read More
There’s a fruit revolution going on…you should be a part of it
If you could …. find a fruit that costs only 12 cents per serving and make it the star of your menu…substitute a conventional fruit with a fruit packed with bold flavor….add pizzazz to your savory and sweet dishes…increase the nutrition density of your menu…innovate with one of our nation’s… Read More
Wild Blueberries: A Delicious Brain Food for Kids
We’ve all heard that you are what you eat. A new study suggests that kids’ executive brain function is also tied to diet. The study, recently published in Food & Function, explores the impact of flavonoid-rich foods, such as wild blueberries on children. Executive function is a set of mental skills, controlled by… Read More
Wild Blueberry French Toast: Simple + Healthy + Yummy
As a chef for Windham Raymond RSU School District #14 in Maine, Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro faces a daunting daily challenge: convincing kids to just try it. That’s why she and her staff go to great lengths to win kids over to fresh nutritious foods. From fashioning pineapples into owls to carving bug-shaped… Read More
Wild Blueberry Bars: An Easy + Nutritious School Snack
For Chef Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro, know your customers is one of the most important rules of school food service. “You have to respect their palate,” says Cowens-Gasbarro, District Nutrition Coordinator for Windham Raymond RSU #14 School District in Maine. High schoolers, for instance, who have mature tastes, will try daring options like Wild… Read More
Breakfast Participation Surges FROM 4% TO 24% With Wild Blueberry Smoothies
All chefs must contend with finicky customers. But Blair Currier, director of the Yarmouth School Nutrition Program in Maine, arguably has some of the most discriminating appetites to sate: the K-to-12 set. “The most challenging thing is keeping kids engaged and interested in foods,” said Currier, who earned his credentials as… Read More