Making a Plant (and Planet) Forward Shift

Earth Day is coming up, and sustainability is once again at the forefront. If schools incorporated more plant forward meals into their operations, the impact on the environment and student health could be tremendous. Plant forward meals focus on fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and reduced meat proteins. A diet focused on plants is better for the environment and therefore more sustainable, as plants take fewer resources to produce than meat. Because schools serve such a large population, serving a vegetarian or plant-based entree even just once a week is beneficial.

The Opportunity

Nationwide, approximately 4.9 billion lunches per year were served (pre-pandemic) via the National School Lunch Program. 540 million of these lunches are served in California. That’s 4.9 billion opportunities to make a shift to sustainable food choices. Sustainable meals have a big impact on emissions and reduce the use of global resources such as water, so how do we continue to make that shift? Moving to a more plant-forward menu is a great first step, but we also need to look at the whole food system. This includes everything from production to service. In school food service, we continue to have a unique opportunity to not only change what kids are eating now, but to educate and influence how they eat in the future.

Often, words like “vegan” or “plant-based” can conjure up thoughts of bland tofu and boring salads, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. As the world is becoming more conscious of the impact choosing plant-based foods has on both our health, as well as the health of the planet, there are numerous resources for delicious plant focused meals. Type “plant-based meals” into Google, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. and you’ll be amazed at the creative and downright scrumptious ideas you find. Plant-based meals offer an incredibly culturally diverse menu allowing us to expose our kids to food from all over the world.

New Foods on the Lunch Tray

Many recipes can be adjusted or altered to embrace plants with healthy, whole ingredients. This spring, TTUSD’s Turkey Tacos will be replaced with Tofu Crumble Tacos and our feature entree for Earth Day will be a Soba Noodle Veggie Bowl. Testing recipes more than once is important to allow for adjustments of the recipe, presentation variations and to incorporate student feedback if it was a close “hit” rather than a total “miss.”

Mealtimes are also educational. Often, kids simply need a little encouragement to try a new food or are curious about it because it’s unfamiliar to them. How amazing would it be if cafeterias or schools were staffed with individuals whose focus was solely nutrition education? Students would receive encouragement and valuable nutrition knowledge, and the staff could gather real time feedback so the school food operators could continually improve their recipes to meet students’ taste preferences. Then next time that meal is served, students may eat more, thereby increasing their nutritional intake and decreasing food waste. A win win for everyone.

Green Teams provide valuable plate waste data (trash and compost details) to Food Services menus that can be adjusted to reduce overall waste. As a result of Green Team’s efforts, TTUSD has secured milk dispensers to reduce cartons in the landfill, removed many packaged items with plastic and replaced them with bulk options such as whole grain crackers, moved to reusable trays and utensils and more. TTUSD has also implemented share tables, tables where children may return whole foods or beverages that they don’t eat, for the past 10 years at all campuses and composted kitchen waste for the past 6 years. TTUSD share tables allow for hungry students to have more food options. Anything leftover from these share tables does not go back into the meal program and is donated. Close to 1 out of every 4 Californians do not have enough to eat. Luckily, Senate Bill 1383 recently passed to reduce hunger and climate change.

Additionally, TTUSD is looking into donating food scraps to a local pig farmer. Currently, the compost materials produced by TTUSD are shipped to Sparks and Carson City, Nevada. By donating non-meat/dairy organic waste to the local pig farmer, the pigs not only get fed, but the materials stay more local. When waste can be separated, it’s yet another reason to make the menu more plant based. By following SAFE (Safe Animal Feed Education) program regulations, TTSUD ensures food waste for animals is safe and maintains its nutritional value.

On top of this, TTUSD is reducing non-food waste by using reusable trays and utensils, condiment pumps instead of individual packets, and by not offering straws. COVID impacted programs nationwide, TTUSD was no exception. Packaged scratch made meals were provided to families at multiple pick up locations or delivered to doorsteps. As TTUSD returns to the pre-pandemic meal operations, removing unnecessary plastic and waste will be a top priority.

Shifting Towards a Sustainable Future

School lunch programs offer an opportunity like no other. These programs can not only make an immediate impact in the present, but they can also educate children on the value of sustainable practices to carry into the future and continue to pay it forward. Embracing the opportunity may not be easy. Staffing is a huge hurdle. Cooking, serving, and educating children requires full time labor and ways to handle food waste can be challenging. We cannot do everything at once, but perhaps we can all continue to shift and rise to those challenges and keep the focus on the health of our children, their future, and the health of the planet.