New Hanover County Schools Participates in National School Lunch Week
"School Lunch - What's Cooking?"

New Hanover County Schools is participating in National School Lunch Week, October 15-19, 2012. “School Lunch - What’s Cooking?” is this year’s theme and celebrates the positive changes that have been made in school lunch programs across the country. Schools nationwide are cooking up all sorts of exciting programs and plans.

“National School Lunch Week is a great opportunity to promote the healthy eating initiatives that New Hanover County Schools’ cafeterias are promoting on a daily basis,” said NHCS Child Nutrition Director Imer Smith. “Throughout our 42 schools, we serve nearly 20,000 students each day, providing nutritious breakfast and lunch options. Our child nutrition teams prepare well-balanced meals and encourage students to make good food choices. A healthy lunch helps make a happy, healthy child.”

Each elementary and middle school lunch includes one entree, one grain, choice of all vegetables, choice of one fruit and choice of milk. For high school, a student’s meal includes one entree, one grain, choice of all vegetables, choice of two fruits and a choice of milk. The NHCS Child Nutrition Department complies with all federal and state guidelines pertaining to the National School Breakfast and National School Lunch Programs. All menus are analyzed for their nutritional content to ensure that all meals have no more than 35% of calories from total fat and less than 10% calories from saturated fat. At the elementary level, all items sold as a la carte contain less than 35% calories from total fat, less than 10% from saturated fat and no more than 35% sugar added by weight. NHCS Child Nutrition has:

• Eliminated fried foods in elementary, middle, and high schools.
• Decreased fat and increased fiber.
• Purchased more whole wheat food items.
• Maintained the USDA requirements on all food items, including a la carte items.

NHCS Child Nutrition Department encourages parents and family members to enjoy a school lunch with their child and learn more about the nutritious meals being prepared by their school’s cafeteria.

Anderson Elementary	Murrayville Elementary	Trask Middle

Posted: 10/17/2012