2014 – CentroNía / DC Bilingual Public Charter School, USA

SALAD BARS IN SCHOOLS

CentroNía serve 3 meal a day to children from 3 months to 6th grade. After restructuring our Food Program six years ago, we changed from catering to producing our own meals. We use whole grains, lean meats, only fresh fruit and vegetables, serve vegetarian ones or twice a week for all students and serve fish onCE a week. When all of this had been established, salad bars were the perfect venue to present new food to children.

What we did / what we are doing
In USA private corporations and the Let’s Move Program started a campaign to donate Salad Bars to schools, we took advantage of the opportunity, requested two salad bars and got them. We use them for lunch, four times a week and for some breakfast. We are also using the salad bar as a tool to teach children about fresh fruit and vegetables, we have created a series the five minutes activities that are done with students, to encourage them to try new foods, and to teach them about healthy food and wellness in general. Our 6th graders take the lead, ones a week, to teach younger students about the benefits of eating healthy.

Outcome(s)
Every day we see more students willing to try new foods and Parents are telling us that their children are asking them to serve more salads at home. Our students love to choose their own foods and the Salad bars help us to offer our students, 5 different fresh fruit and vegetables a day.

Next steps
To get more salad bars for our younger children.
A contest for students to make posters for the salad bar.

Email address
bzuluaga@centronia.org