Child Nutrition Services establishes a menu that all the schools follow so that each day every school will offer the same foods, but children's choices still have an impact. We have a meal pattern that the federal government requires us to meet. The federal program requires that we offer the children these five items, yet we must serve them what they choose. This teaches children to make wise choices. It is a good educational method of teaching children from a very early age not to be wasteful.
Children also affect the daily servings in their cafeteria.
If they are provided green beans and broccoli as vegetables and more students are eating beans, then the Child Nutrition staff will continue to cook and provide more beans. The supervisor notes the children's selection and that determines future foods that are ordered. Every school day nearly 600 Child Nutrition workers prepare food for most of the school system's 98,000 students at 122 sites. By meeting federal nutrition standards, Child Nutrition Services receives federal funds and foods that help hold down the costs of meals and puts foods, many grown by local farmers, in the cafeteria for children. We send menus home to parents.