S4 E5 - What's For Lunch?

Lunchtime is a highlight for our kids each day! In this episode we’re talking with our School Nutrition Director to learn more about our meal program and the creative things our team does to get kids excited about school breakfast and lunch!

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER1: Lunch is a part of the school day that every student has in common, and it's a highlight for many. (00:04):
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This week we are celebrating National School Lunch Week, and we have a lot to be excited about with our own school meal program.
Today we're talking with our school Nutrition Director to learn more about our meal program and the creative ways she gets kids excited about school breakfast

(00:26):
and lunch.

SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids. (00:28):
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Here is your host, lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Doctor Leslie Bergstrom.

SPEAKER3: Let's start with introducing yourself to our listeners and sharing a little bit about your background. (00:40):
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Hi, I'm Mandy Bienlein. I am the director of nutrition and food service for the Oregon School District.
I've now made it a whole year. Yay! So that's exciting.
So this is the second year. Um, I guess I came -- a little bit about my background.

(01:01):
I've always been in the food industry. I started in the restaurant world, and then during the pandemic,
and then after the pandemic, I moved to California, and that's where I kind of started the school system and started working at
Stanford, and I loved it. So then I came on back to Wisconsin home, and I found this job.
And

SPEAKER1: we're so glad you did. And I was--always fascinating for me. (01:20):
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I remember thinking back to your interview about how what you learned doing work at Stanford,
how much that was going to transfer into the work here.
It was just fun to listen to you talk about it.
So yay for the first year and here we go.
How would you describe the goals of our school nutrition program to our listeners?

SPEAKER3: Well, I think the main goal is to provide healthy meals to our students. (01:43):
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Yes. Um, and then we try to do it through creative and fun ways, because to me,
food is fun. And hopefully it's fun for other people too. Yeah.
Um, I think of food as that's what I look forward to in life.
So I hope that's what the students are looking forward to. Maybe they don't have the greatest food at home or not.

(02:04):
Everyone's a great cook, so they want to come to school and get those fun meals.

SPEAKER1: But food is fun, you know? And I do believe that that's something that's important to convey to kids that food and nutrition (02:09):
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is fun. Like feeding your body well can be fun, right?

SPEAKER3: It can be, um, just like we are part of the national school program. (02:23):
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Yeah. And that's kind of more of a program to make sure that we're following all the guidelines.
Sure. But they don't always have to think of it as the guidelines, but they can be fun.
We have to use different color vegetables.
Yes. We have to use--

SPEAKER1: And I see that when I when I look at the serving lines, it's colorful! (02:41):
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SPEAKER3: It is colorful. (02:46):
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SPEAKER1: Yeah. (02:47):
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SPEAKER3: I love it when all the students will take different colors of the rainbow. (02:47):
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Yes, for their trays. But it's fun for them to also try a new vegetable.
And those are kind of the goals that I'd like to see to coming up in the future is to try different vegetables for them.
Um, right now I just found a root vegetable milk mix for the high school.
So we'll see if they know what parsnips are.

SPEAKER1: Oh, that should be interesting. All right. (03:08):
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SPEAKER3: We try to play with the seasons as well. (03:11):
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Of course! This month is big on apples because it started the fall.
And we had the Big Apple crunch last Thursday.
And so I'm trying to incorporate more Apple things this month.

SPEAKER1: So kids will love that. (03:23):
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SPEAKER3: Exactly. Yeah. We're trying an apple chicken salad at the high school for the grab and go. (03:25):
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Um, so just trying to bring those things to light.

SPEAKER1: Actually, that does sound super fun. How will you prepare the root vegetable medley in a way that you think will be appealing to our high schoolers? (03:35):
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SPEAKER3: We're going to roast them so they're a little crispier. (03:44):
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SPEAKER1: Because that's always best. (03:46):
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SPEAKER3: Give it a little crunch. (03:48):
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SPEAKER1: Yes. (03:49):
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SPEAKER3: Um, and it has a mixture of sweet potatoes and different root vegetables. (03:50):
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So it'll be fun to see if they know the different vegetables are too.

SPEAKER1: Yeah. (03:58):
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SPEAKER3: Um, but definitely living here in Oregon, there's a lot of farms, so I know some people are more familiar. (03:59):
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Yes, definitely the FFA. We have a lot of students part of that.
Yes. And that's even a group with Jillian that I'm working with, which hopefully that we can use fresh herbs when they start growing them and
incorporate them into our meals.

SPEAKER1: Yes. That would be terrific. So as you mentioned, we are a part of the National School program. (04:17):
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What is it and what does it mean for our meals?

SPEAKER3: Sure. It--like I was saying, it was the guidelines. (04:26):
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Right. Um, we have to serve five different components.
So it's the meat/meat alternative. The grain, the dairy, the vegetable and the fruit.
Okay. And since we're offer versus serve, students are able to choose three of the five meal components,
which is great. We'll give them the option of what they want.

(04:46):
And if you ever look at our menus, we actually have two kinds of vegetables for them,
two kinds of fruit. So if they don't like something, hopefully they like the other. Yeah. So they can build those trays for us, and
maybe they can try something new too.

SPEAKER1: That's the goal. Now, could they have two fruits or two vegetables as opposed to one of the other so they can mix and match within those five? (04:59):
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Right?

SPEAKER3: They can mix and match. (05:07):
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SPEAKER1: Okay. Um, and I bet that's part of what makes it fun too, is that there's a little bit of choice involved. (05:07):
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And it isn't just like, "here's the lunch, whether you like it or not," right?
Like, they get to pick something from this extensive--And it is pretty extensive menu for the fact that you're serving at the high school,
you know, well over a thousand kids potentially.

SPEAKER3: Yeah. There is something I feel for everybody. (05:27):
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Yeah. We have a salad bar. Sandwich bar.
Then we have the hot options. Yes. Um, we make a different daily hot option every day.
But then we also do hot grab and go. Yeah.
I mean, it could be a little more fun stuff like it's pizza and stuff to our guidelines.

SPEAKER1: Well, yeah. And that gets into the next question really is what are we actively doing to make sure our food is as healthy as possible so that we are meeting (05:45):
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those guidelines and in some cases, exceeding those guidelines?

SPEAKER3: Yes. Um, right now, this year we did eliminate all dyes. (05:57):
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Wow. And I know that was a big thing statewide and countywide that we're--I think it's in two years where we have to eliminate them.

SPEAKER1: And you did (06:08):
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SPEAKER3: it ahead (06:08):
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SPEAKER1: of time. Wonderful. (06:09):
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SPEAKER3: We decided to do it ahead of time, which was nice. We don't also use salt while cooking, (06:10):
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which is interesting, but it's also we use salt free herbs and stuff like that.
So you can really have more flavor and like kind of flavor the food.

SPEAKER1: It doesn't have to be from salt. (06:29):
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SPEAKER3: Like salt instead of just tasting salt. (06:31):
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SPEAKER1: Right, right. (06:33):
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SPEAKER3: Which I think is great. We don't use butter for cooking. (06:34):
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SPEAKER1: Oh, wow. So olive oil or what? What do you use when (06:38):
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SPEAKER3: you need it? (06:42):
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SPEAKER1: Okay. (06:43):
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SPEAKER3: Different oil blends will use. Um. But then right now, even going into the future, (06:43):
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we're looking at putting in a commissary kitchen, which will be better for the kitchens all around,
the food all around, because you use less sodium in it, because you're scratch cooking. So a commissary kitchen,
it's not going to.

SPEAKER1: Thanks for describing it, because I was going to have to ask you anyway, so I'm glad you're describing it. (07:01):
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SPEAKER3: It'll take a few years to see where my vision goes and how I want it to get to, but it's more I'm going to start at the high school, (07:06):
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but we want to make things from scratch because it's cheaper to make things from scratch,
and it's better product when you make from scratch, because when you're buying it,
it just has more sodium and all the preservatives in it.
Yes, exactly. So if we can start making things here and in-house at one school, and then we can put it at the other schools,

(07:32):
we'd send it out.

SPEAKER1: That's exciting. And does our current high school kitchen, as far as the facilities go, (07:34):
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does it meet the requirements for making it a commissary kitchen?

SPEAKER3: It does. We have plenty of staff there, which is great. (07:44):
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And they the staff, all of our staff, they all want to help and they all want to produce something fun.

SPEAKER1: Yes. So you do have wonderful staff in the school nutrition program. (07:52):
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You really do.

SPEAKER3: So they take pride. They even send me little texts, or they email me and be like, (07:57):
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"oh, have you seen this recipe? Can we do something like this?" Um, one of our,
our kitchen coordinator over at the middle school sent me overnight oats, and she's like, "Mandy, I really think the students here would love overnight
oats." So right now, I'm trying to find a recipe so that abides by all of our.

SPEAKER1: Yes, all of the guidelines. Absolutely. (08:17):
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SPEAKER3: Um, to see if they like it. (08:20):
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SPEAKER1: Oh, that would be fantastic. I love overnight oats. (08:22):
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Yeah, hopefully

SPEAKER3: they would, (08:26):
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SPEAKER1: too. Yeah, I hope so. So you just gave me a great example, but what are some other creative things your team does to make the food (08:26):
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attractive to the kids?

SPEAKER3: Well, I know recently I had a name of, um, I did nacho breaded fish sticks. (08:36):
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Yes, yes. And I got a lot of buzz.

SPEAKER1: Because people hadn't heard of it before. People had heard of it. (08:47):
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SPEAKER3: And I just saw the nacho breading that fit our guidelines, which was great. (08:49):
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And, um, try to give this-- the kids love chicken and I'm trying to get step outside their comfort zone from chicken.

SPEAKER1: Yeah, absolutely. (08:59):
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SPEAKER3: Give him some fish, give them some other items. (09:00):
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And I was like, "wait, who doesn't like cheese? You're from Wisconsin." Um, so I called it nacho bread because I was like,
"well, let's see if that will get them excited for the meal and take the fish sticks that day."

SPEAKER1: How did how did they do? How did they nacho fish sticks? (09:13):
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Oh, I'm glad to hear it.

SPEAKER3: I think I want to make them into tacos. That was the ultimate goal, but (09:17):
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SPEAKER1: I wanted to see if they (09:19):
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SPEAKER3: liked them first. (09:20):
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SPEAKER1: Yes, absolutely. Because when I saw that, the first thing I thought of was fish tacos, (09:21):
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right? So that is the next step. Oh, okay.
Thank you. Um, what's on the horizon? You spoke about the commissary kitchen, which is super exciting.
Is there anything else that you see as the next step out there?

SPEAKER3: Well, I'm trying to do this school year. (09:40):
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Um, the second Thursday of every month is a "try it" day.
Yeah. So whether it's a new item I put on the menu this year, it could be a breakfast item,
it could be a lunch item, or it could just be us going to the kitchen and try maybe a different vegetable.
Okay. For all the--

SPEAKER1: So that's going to be something that gives every kid an opportunity to try something new, (09:56):
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basically. Correct. Yes. Which is which is wonderful.
And I'm sure that's something parents are trying all the time. So if you are achieving success in that,
you know, congratulations. That's really, really great.

SPEAKER3: And I've learned kids are very truthful. So if (10:13):
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SPEAKER1: they don't tell you something they (10:15):
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SPEAKER3: will let me know, which is great. (10:16):
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SPEAKER1: I completely agree with you. And now school meals are really different from when I was a student. (10:18):
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Um, and many of our parents, obviously. How can we get information if they are interested in learning more about school nutrition and what we're offering,
or if they have questions?

SPEAKER3: Yeah, you can find everything on our website. (10:35):
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There's information on there. Otherwise they can um, my email is on there as well.
So they can email me.

SPEAKER1: Okay. (10:43):
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SPEAKER3: I have no issues with answering any questions. (10:44):
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SPEAKER1: Absolutely. Because this matters, right? (10:48):
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What--What our kids eat. It matters for their health and for the peace of mind.
I think of a lot of our families, too, knowing that they're getting high quality food at school.
So I love that you're open to their questions.
And then finally, it takes a whole team of caring adults to prepare and serve two meals a day at seven different schools.

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So tell us about how interested community members could maybe join our team and what that entails.

SPEAKER3: Yes, we actually have some positions. (11:17):
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SPEAKER1: Great. (11:19):
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SPEAKER3: Which we have probably about eight subs right now. (11:20):
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And they're all past people who've gone to the school a lot of or they have children or grandchildren going to this district.

SPEAKER1: Which is great (11:30):
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SPEAKER3: to see. So they just come and help us through lunch. (11:30):
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It's typically when someone requests off and we need to fill a spot, or someone is sick at last minute and they come in.
So you're more we have all the positions up on our website.

SPEAKER1: Okay. (11:42):
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SPEAKER3: But we're always looking for more sub and more help. And people who are passionate about cooking and just having fun in the And kitchens. (11:43):
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SPEAKER1: Absolutely. And when I am walking by, people are having fun. (11:50):
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You can hear, you can hear the laughter as they're doing what they're doing for our kids.
So everyone, you can find more information on our school nutrition program at our district website at www.OregonSD.org In the
"families" section. Remember that you can find links to all episodes of Inside the OSD and submit topic ideas on our

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website at OregonSD.org/podcast. You can find this podcast anywhere you can find podcasts.
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We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.