On a refreshing note, however, last night's menu planning session went incredibly well! The parent volunteers were extremely excited and positive about the idea of offering a healthy breakfast free-of-charge to children. I found their enthusiasm and positive energy so infectious that I found it hard to sleep when I got home because I was so excited for the program to be started. Myself, Tina (fellow Dietetic Intern), and Lori who works at Tri-County Regional School Board office, each helped out a table of parents plan a week-long menu (to have three weeks of menus in total) consisting of maximum foods from the NS School Food and Nutrition Policy with each meal being comprised of at least 3 of the 4 food groups from Canada's Food Guide. Discussions from my table included how to get kids eating new and different foods, such as mango, papaya, and tofu. Conversations also touched on the current lunch menu served by the cafeteria with a specific example being the pancake lunches and how the son of one of the parents present refuses to eat this lunch since it is "swimming in butter". This school is one that I will be focusing on for my foodservice assessments and will be focusing on their menu content in order to provide supports to help the school better follow the School Food and Nutrition Policy, and apparently it is needed.
It was extremely interesting to discuss healthy and non-healthy foods with these parents as they genuinely want to provide healthy foods for all children in the school. I am excited to see how this new Breakfast Program advances in the next couple of months.
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