Route 1 area elementary schools gain salad bars, locally sourced produce
As part of a five-year rollout plan from Fairfax County Public Schools’ Office of Food and Nutrition Services, several local elementary schools are scheduled to gain a salad bar this upcoming school year.
The first location to benefit was Fort Belvoir Elementary School’s Upper School (grades 4-6), which launched its new salad bar September 20. That made it the eighth Richmond Highway-area elementary school to have one, and Washington Mill, Hollin Meadows and Stratford Landing also are scheduled for implementation this school year. Fort Belvoir Elementary’s Lower School (grades 1-3) will get its salad bar during the 2019-2020 academic year.
As of right now, a total of 55 FCPS elementary schools have salad bars, and by June 2021, all 141 schools across the county will have them, according to Christie St. Pierre, food services operations specialist with FCPS.
St. Pierre said reaction to the new salad bar at Fort Belvoir Upper School has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Students were very excited about their salad bar opening last week, evidenced by their trays loaded with a rainbow of fresh fruit and vegetables,” she said. “Students appreciate having more choice in their lunch, and they are much more likely to eat fruits and vegetables that they selected and served themselves,” she added.
Fort Belvoir Upper School’s new principal, Jamey Chianetta, is equally pleased with the new addition to the cafeteria.
“Over 300 school lunches were purchased on the very first day of implementation, and interest remains high each day,” said Chianetta. “The choices are colorful, healthy and delicious. I’ve stopped packing lunch myself and am a daily salad bar purchaser too!”
The school’s salad bar features seven types of fruits and vegetables each day, purchased from Bowie Produce, which sources them from local farms when possible.
One particular local farm that’s collaborating with FCPS on a “Farm to Salad Bar” program is Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture.
According to St. Pierre — who serves as the school district’s Farm to School Specialist — the collaboration began as a pilot program in June 2018, when FCPS Food and Nutrition Services began purchasing salad greens, kale and beets from Arcadia for the salad bars at Mount Eagle and Woodley Hills Elementary Schools. Earlier that spring, both schools had sent one grade level of children to Arcadia for a farm field trip, and Mount Eagle had held a lunchtime beet tasting hosted by Arcadia.
This year, the program is expanding to include both fall and winter crops. The first Arcadia produce will arrive at the schools’ salad bars in early October, just in time for Virginia Farm to School Week, said St. Pierre. She noted that Riverside Elementary will start serving Arcadia produce this fall, and a fourth school will be added in the spring.
School field trips to Arcadia and in-school education from Arcadia farmers will continue to be vital components of the Farm to Salad Bar collaboration, increasing students’ exposure to different kinds of vegetables and increasing the likelihood that they’ll eat them from the salad bar, said St. Pierre.
Learn more about Arcadia’s Farm to School program here.
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