Click here- Food Service Policy

Why should I encourage my children to eat school meals?

Providing students their choice of milk, fruits, and vegetables, whole grain and lean proteins, school meals are a great value and a huge convenience for busy parents. School cafeterias offer students a variety of healthy choices and help children learn how to assemble a well-balanced meal. Parents can rest assured that there is no super sizing in school cafeteria's because federal regulations require schools to serve age-appropriate portions.

Don't school meals contain processed foods?

What have become known as processed foods are increasingly being prepared with healthier ingredients, as well as less fat, sodium and sugar. Pizzas are increasingly made with whole grain crusts, low-sodium sauce and reduced fat cheese. Chicken nuggets regularly use whole grain breading and are baked rather than fried. French fries are with trans fat and baked instead of fried - and many schools are now serving baked sweet potato fries.

How many school participate in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs?

The National School Lunch Program operates in nearly 95% of America's schools, providing lunches to more than 31 million children daily with 5 billion lunches served annually. Approximately 85% of schools daily participate in the National School Breakfast Program (NSBP), which serves more than 2 billion breakfasts a year.

School meals offer students milk, fruits and vegetables, proteins and grains, and they must meet strict limits on saturated fat and portion size. Starting school year 2012-2013, school lunches will meet additional standards requiring:

1. Age-appropriate calorie limits

2. Larger servings of vegetables and fruits (students must take at least one serving of fruit or vegetable).

3. A wider variety of vegetables, including dark green and red/orange vegetables and legumes

4. fat-free or 1% milk (flavored milk must be fat-free)

5. More whole grains

6. Less sodium

If you would like more information go to: https://traytalk.org/

Thank You Miss Ellie

Information provided by: School Nutrition Association and Tray Talk

Students will be denied a regular meal if the current charge takes their balance over -$10.00. With a -$10.00 balance two or three (2 or 3) meals have already been charged, therefore the student will be denied a regular lunch and served / offered a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, vegetable, fruit, and milk.

We have made it easy to check your balance and keep your lunch account current. To find your balance you can ask the cashier, email or call Miss Ellie, or check it on line, and then pay accordingly on your account.

Please utilize these tools to insure you have funds available for a well-balanced, nutritious lunch. If you have any questions, I can be reach at 419-924-2365 ext. 2144 or email at sstough@hilltopcadets.org

Thank You,

Miss Shari

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.

USDA has changed the National School lunch for the first time in 15 years. Why? The USDA recognizes the fast paced obesity epidemic in our country. The new meal pattern, Food Based Menu Planning, has specific guidelines some of these are: wider variety of fruits and vegetables, more whole grain rich foods, 1% milk or less, saturated fats, calories, and sodium have minimum and maximum.

School lunches have 5 portion controlled components offered. They are:

• Meal or meat alternate (protein)
• Fruit (100% juice, light syrup, fresh, and frozen)
• Vegetables (dark green, red/orange, legumes, starchy, and other)
• Grains (50% of weeks servings must be whole grain rich)
• Milk (variety of 1%, skim, flavored fat free)

Did you know we offer these type food items on your child's lunch menu?

Some of the items are or contain:

Made from scratch, whole grain rich, natural with no artificial preservatives, contain 0 Trans fats, no high fructose corn syrup, meet Alliance for Healthier Generation guidelines, baked in place of fried.

OUR FOOD MAY CONTAIN OR HAVE COME IN CONTACT WITH WHEAT, FISH, SOY, PEANUTS, TREE NUTS, EGGS, SHELL FISH, DAIRY AND OR SESAME. PLEASE MAKE US AWARE IF YOU HAVE ANY FOOD ALLERGIES. THANK YOU