Beech Tree News Network

October 14-18 is National School Lunch Week

During the week of October 14-18^th schools across the country are celebrating National School Lunch Week. This week focuses on the impact that school nutrition has on students' health. The Butler County School Nutrition Program has made a commitment to improving the health of their students and supporting their local community through the Farm to School Program. Kaitlin Harrison, School Nutrition Director and Registered Dietitian, shed light on this program and its impact.

“The Farm to School Program facilitates the relationship between the public school system and the local agriculture community by making it easy to purchase local produce,” says Harrison. “We are involved by purchasing produce from our local farmers, such as Struttin’ Rooster Farms in Jetson, KY, Heritage Farms in Sugar Grove, KY, and Jackson’s Orchard in Richardsville, KY.” Students benefit from the local produce and so do farmers. According to Harrison, “It provides our students with safer, healthier produce and it helps out our local farmers by being a convenient customer. It really is a win-win for everyone involved! We offer a salad bar at BCHS and of course lots of local produce through our Farm to School Program.” Harrison has seen a positive reception to the local produce from students, saying, “They love it when we offer local produce and they can usually tell when it’s a local grown product versus produce delivered by our grocer.”

The Butler County School Nutrition Program strives to provide healthy meals that students enjoy. “We do taste tests to see what our students enjoy and we try to involve them as much as we can in menu planning,” says Harrison. The Butler County School Nutrition Program also teaches students how to eat well with nutrition education sessions twice each year.When asked what parents can do to help children make healthy food decisions at home and at school, Harrison replies, “Talk about portion control, become familiar with MyPlate recommendations, and eat family meals at home often!”