Food & Health Inspiration
Summer is a time for lemonade, relaxation and family vacations. A time to enjoy the sunshine and reset for the upcoming school year.
would it be to add string cheese to your meal and twist a pipe cleaner around the cheese stick and attach a fun message like “No strings attached?” July provides lots of opportunities with Berry Month, Eat Beans Day and Picnic Day.August has watermelon day and Peach Month. Check out University of Nebraska- Lincoln (https://food.unl.edu/) for a comprehensive list of food days, food months, food weeks, free resources such as activities and posters, and more. Community Involvement Get out into your community. Do you have a mobile meal site, meal pick up site or a drive through? Ask for community guest appearances! Local mascots, police officers, firefighters, military or other known community members can make meal service fun and entertaining. Perhaps you have a Watermelon Queen, Peach King or Dairy Princess at your local agriculture department? Ask them to come and distribute meals. Most of the time, these guests have freebies to give away: pencils, coloring books, stickers, recipes, badges and other fun trinkets. Just remember to ask! Does your state, county or school system have a mobile library? If so, how can they get involved? Could they be a pull up service that students could
Since the pandemic, we all are adjusting and adapting to the new normal. There is one thing that has remained consistent for the students across the United States. Free Meals for all. This career brings out the true passion we all share; feeding kids, doing our part. We know hard work and see first-hand the benefit to feeding America’s youth. We know how to make our cafeterias kid-friendly. We participate in National School Lunch Week and National School Breakfast Week. We wear fruit and vegetable costumes to encourage healthy eating. We hang posters, offer samples and embrace each student with a warm smile. But there seems to be a void. That void is missing the true, fun, spirited interactions with our customers. As we approach summer break, we can work on filling that void. Regardless of meal delivery style, we can take the enthusiasm and creativity that we use inside our cafeterias and channel those efforts into Summer Meals.
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We can take the enthusiasm and creativity that we use inside our cafeterias and channel those efforts into Summer Meals. “
access while getting a meal? Just like the library, often the health department has community resources they can supply. Add Fun Extras Add a sticker, fortune cookie, summer themed word finds or other fun “extras” into the meal bag. If you have a local youth organization such as Volunteen,
Fun T-Shirts Perhaps your team pulls together and has a special FUN summer t-shirt with a cute emoji and message that you wear on certain days? Or, you have a t-shirt letter challenge where the students arrange employees to spell out a word (each employee would have a letter on their shirt such as S, U, M, M, E, R).
Tips & Tricks to Make Summer Meals FUN!
ask them to craft messages on note paper and add them to each bag. Everyone likes reading a surprise message like “You are amazing” or “I love your smile.” Student Involvement Solicit the help of students within your school
Celebrate Food Days Celebrate National Food Days and National Food Weeks by incorporating the theme into your summer menu. June 4th is National Cheese Day. How fun
International Food Solutions Della M. Collins, SNS
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