us provide more curbside school meals, and ultimately helped us feed our community during an ongoing global pandemic. In addition, many heat and serve school meal programs are doing incredible work today and still nourish students with prepackaged foods. We don’t want to minimize the work of our peers, and we don’t want to send the wrong message to families by inadvertently shaming them. Again, what can we do? Reframe and refocus on our message without demonizing any food or beverages. For example: Instead of: We are excited to announce that our cafeterias are preparing more scratch-cooked meals because prepackaged foods are dangerous and detrimental to students‘ health. Focus on: What your school meal program offers and the positive changes being made. Try this: We are excited to announce that our cafeterias are moving towards more scratch-cooked meals to expand the flavors and textures of our meals and enhance our students‘ overall school meal experience.
Families are out here doing the best they can with what they have. Sound familiar? It should because that‘s exactly what school meal programs and School Nutrition Professionals across the nation do. I encourage you to reframe, shift the focus, and meet families exactly where they are. Alright, School Nutrition trendsetters, I would love to see this transition from trend to standard in our industry. Let’s make it happen!
Angela is a second-career Registered Dietitian and recently transitioned out of her role as a Nutritionist at an Arizona school district to the School Lunch Coordinator position with LunchAssist. She started her career as a Dietitian over 4 years ago after unexpectedly falling in love with School Nutrition during her dietetic internship. Angela sees School Nutrition as the ideal place to bridge her passion for tasty food, nutrition education, health equity, and food justice. She loves any opportunity to be creative and feels that the world of School Nutrition continues to be a great place to flex those creative muscles. LunchAssist; School Nutrition Coordinator Angela Gomez, RDN, SNS
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