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Wednesday, March 16, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Eating well at school in Sisters
By erin Borla
Correspondent
Every day students at all
three Sisters public schools
have the opportunity for a
nutritious breakfast and lunch
served by smiling nutrition
workers. For as low as $1.50
per student for breakfast and
$2.50 to $3.25 per student for
lunch, students receive well-
balanced meals.
The Healthy and Hunger
Free Kids Act of 2010, driven
by the USDA, changed the
guidelines for what the nutri-
tion services staff can prepare
at each of the school sites.
Even with the new guidelines,
the nutrition staff in the Sisters
School District do their best to
make each meal their own.
Lunch menus include
items like a barbecue pork
rib sandwich, chicken tacos,
spaghetti and breadsticks,
and bean and cheese burritos.
Meals come with fruit like
an apple or applesauce and a
vegetable. All three schools
always have their fresh salad
bar available as well.
There are no bagged salads
in any of the cafeterias in the
district. Each school cuts and
prepares greens for the salad
bar every day. In the spring
all three schools are con-
nected with local growers for
their lettuce and other greens.
Seed to Table coordinator
Audry Tehan has been provid-
ing some produce for Sisters
Elementary School and soon
the greenhouse at Sisters High
School will allow for students
to enjoy food that many of
their classmates have grown.
“We do our best to make
everything from scratch,
we don’t use frozen burri-
tos — they are hand-rolled.
On Tuesdays I prepare the
meals for all three schools at
the high school,” says Terri
Rood, operations assistant for
the nutrition services depart-
ment. “Something like spa-
ghetti is made in the high
school kitchen and packaged
and delivered to each of the
schools to be served.
“Corn dogs are the stu-
dents’ favorite,” Rood con-
tinues. “Students don’t know
we use turkey hot dogs and
whole-wheat breading — we
try to make everything as
healthy as possible.”
Rood has an office at
Sisters High School and has
been employed by the Sisters
School District for the last 16
years. She is the only full-
time employee in the nutrition
department. The additional
five employees work lim-
ited hours ensuring meals are
prepped and ready to go for
students.
“It’s challenging every day
to make it happen,” she says.
“I love connecting foods to
kids at every school.
“I can’t make a fried burrito
and serve it here,” Rood says.
“And I tell you, they won’t
be able to leave this cafeteria
without a fruit and vegetable
on their plate. We do make
a lot from scratch, includ-
ing our granola that uses real
honey, apple, juice and oats.
And we just received several
boxes of frozen blueberries
that have allowed us to make
blueberry compote, crisp,
and other yummy treats!”
Even though the nutri-
tion workers provide healthy,
nutritious meals using fresh
ingredients as available,
lunch numbers are still low,
especially at the high school
with around 40 students per
day eating from the school
cafeteria.
Around 100 students per
day eat at the elementary
school and just under 100
photo by eriN borla
Students get in on the act in the school cafeteria.
per day at the middle school.
Breakfast numbers are lower
with an average of 40 at
the elementary school, and
between 20-30 at the other
two schools.
The low numbers at SHS
can be attributed to a vari-
ety of factors. Some students
leave campus for lunch.
Staff in the nutrition depart-
ment believe there is a stigma
around eating hot lunch in the
older grades. Some students
use their lunchtime for social-
izing; some don’t want to be
seen as the student who eats
hot lunch; and there are some
who may not be aware of the
choices that are available.
“The number (of students
that we serve) is low,” Rood
says. “We are doing a lot to
try to eliminate the stigma
of eating lunch from the caf-
eteria. We need to work on
marketing what we have to
offer to our students and their
families.”
There are suggestion boxes
at all three schools for stu-
dents to submit ideas for new
and different menu items.
Students can also share what
they like and don’t like on the
menu. The more constructive
the comments, the better it
helps the staff to improve.
While lunch numbers are
lower in the higher grades, the
elementary school has seen an
increase of about 20 students
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