How we celebrated National School Lunch Week
National School Lunch Week was October 14-18th and The Learning Center Charter School celebrated with a cultural culinary exploration each day for lunch.
The National School Lunch Program serves more than 30 million children every school day. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy created National School Lunch Week to promote the importance of a healthy school lunch and the impact it has inside and outside of the classroom. During the annual weeklong celebration, schools across the country celebrate in their cafeterias with special menus and events.
Hilary Ehlers, Child Nutrition Director at the charter school, decided that this year’s celebration would be a cultural exploration of food found around the world. The nutrition staff and teachers worked together in the planning to ensure that students would learn about the highlighted global cultures while getting the opportunity to try the corresponding foods at lunchtime.
Each day a new country and its foods were presented to the students. Greece, Italy, Thailand, Mexico and the Caribbean were all part of the week. Ravioli, egg rolls, fried rice, fajitas, jerk chicken, pineapple salsa and coconut rice were just some of the delicious things on the menu.
“Our goal was to introduce new foods and flavors to our students,” said Ehlers. She added that the enthusiasm about trying new foods far exceeded her expectations.
“Food is such a fundamental part of the human experience and exposing our students to cultures around the world through food has been so much fun for everyone at our school,” said Ehlers. She added that many of the new foods will become regular features on the school’s lunch menus.