[BHS etree] SUPT: An Update on BHS Food Services

[bhs at idiom.com]

BUSD Nutrition Services - Striving to Serve Nutritious - Delicious
Food to ALL Our Children

My name is Ann Cooper and I am the new Director of Nutrition Services
for BUSD.  My relationship with the district began in the Fall of
2005, when I began working for the Chez Panisse Foundation and
consulting for Nutrition Services.  Over the ensuing year, I came to
know and respect the department, and when the Director position
became open I applied and officially became part of the team in
October of 2005.

The past few months have been a whirlwind of activities from cooking
in the kitchens, to meeting with PTAs to meeting with student groups
to actively changing the food that is offered to our children.  The
following are a sampling of the numerous positive changes that have
been implemented in the past 4 months.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
*  Fresh Fruit and Vegetables served daily
*  Processed packaged foods replaced with healthy meals made from
scratch
*  White bread replaced with Vital Vittles whole wheat bread for
sandwiches
*  All processed frozen Mexican entrees replaced with fresh made ones
made by All Star Tamales
*  All processed frozen Pizza replaced with fresh made by FullBloom
Baking company
*  Salad Bars are being phased into all of the schools
*  Healthy snacks have replaced the highly processed ones in all of
the snack programs
*  All hotdogs and hamburgers are natural, hormone and antibiotic
free and are made from grass-fed cattle
*  All rolls are whole grain
*  All milk is hormone and antibiotic free
*  Stonyfield yogurt, without high fructose corn syrup has replaced
all other yogurt in the district
*  Fresh chicken (as opposed to pre-cooked frozen) served weekly
*  Organic and natural breakfast items served daily in many of the
schools

MIDDLE SCHOOLS - many of the above hold true in the Middle Schools,
plus:
Cycle menus are being instituted to include:
*  Roast chicken
*  Baked stuffed shells
*  Hot Dogs
*  Pizza
*  Fresh made Mexican
*  Rice is being cooked fresh daily as opposed to the frozen product
previously served

HIGH SCHOOL - many of the above hold true in the High School, plus:
*  Organic and natural, made-to-order salads - daily
*  Cycle menu of made from scratch hot items available daily
*  Grilled chicken sandwich daily
*  Filtered water available 

The BUSD Nutrition Services Department is thrilled to be able to have
upgraded the food that we're feeding our children.  These changes are
part of a larger effort called the School Lunch Initiative (SLI). The
School Lunch Initiative is a partnership with the BUSD, the Chez
Panisse Foundation and the Center for Ecoliteracy.  You'll be hearing
more about SLI as we're working on making our offerings ever more
healthy, nutritious, delicious and enticing.  I look forward to your
feedback on these changes, and I hope that your children try our new
offerings.  The more children that eat our food, the more positive
changes we can institute and the better the food will become.

Thank you for caring about our children's health.  I look forward to
hearing from you and meeting you in the coming months. 

Sincerely,
Ann Cooper
Director of Nutrition Services

Note from BUSD Public Information Officer: A DVD of Ann Cooper's talk
in December: "Lunch Lessons: Rethinking the Way America Feeds It's
Children" is available in all five branches of the Berkeley Public
Library, and is also being broadcast on Berkeley Community Media
Cable Channel 33 (See schedule at www.betv.org).


==========================================

Mark A. Coplan
Public Information Officer, BUSD
510-644-6320
Mark_Coplan at berkeley.k12.ca.us
Berkeley Unified School District
2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, Ca 94704-1180