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We are fortunate that with the support
of the Board and the District Administration, we are now the
only District in New Mexico and one of the few in the nation to
provide a full Offer Verses Serve program in grades K thru 12.
We are also the only District to provide multiple entrees in
conjunction with the offer versus serve approach. This provides
our students with no less than three entrée choices each day at
lunch time.
This initiative has provided the program with several positive
sets of data.
· Even with a reduction of about 45 students from last year, our
overall student participation increased 4.8% over last year.
· During this same timeframe, we reduced our labor costs by
approximately 11%.
· Our breakfast participation has grown a whopping 30.6% and the
lunch program participation has increased 5.7% at Zuni High
School.
· Approximately 91% of the ZHS enrollment eats lunch each day,
and about 44% of the enrollment eats breakfast. These numbers
are almost unheard of at the high school level.
Much of the above was accomplished by menu selection, purchasing
of sealing equipment and training of the staff. This equipment
has allowed us to market our products to our students (see
attached photos). We feel that removing the old six compartment
trays and using single service style of menu selection has made
the meal service a more pleasing experience for our students.
While our school lunch and breakfast programs are moving along
nicely we also are still actively a part of the USDA Fruit and
Vegetable Program. This has been very successful in our attempt
to teach our students healthy choices in snacks. We have
received national recognition for our efforts. We received the
Victory Against Hunger Award from the Congressional Hunger
Center during the last school year. This award came with a one
thousand dollar ($1,000.00) prize to the District.
In cooperation with the Zuni Tribe, we took over the Summer
Lunch Program in the community. We had a very successful start
this year. We managed to feed over 39% of all eligible children
during the month of June (during summer school) and 25% of all
eligible children during the duration of the program.
Additionally, we had the distinction of being the only program
in NM and one of the few in the entire country to provide
service on the weekend to our children last summer. The
participation numbers show that this part of the program was
both welcomed and needed.
We are of course in total compliance with all State and Federal
nutrition requirements. We meet or exceed all nutrition mandates
and our menus reflect the District concern for the epidemic
diabetes and obesity problems in the Pueblo, while still taking
the student preference in to consideration. The monthly menu
will be posted on the District web site starting with the
December. These menus will be on each school site and will
provide a nutrient analysis for each week. A copy of the
December menus is attached.
Last but not least, we have been notified by the State Food
Service Coordinator, that in the coming month we will be
nominated for the National Best Practice Award given by the
USDA. This is quite an honor just to be nominated.
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