Interactive Menus
Please click on the links in each menu section to view this month’s interactive menus. These menus provide the nutritional and allergen information you need to plan your school meals. By clicking on the links, you will download a PDF of the menu, from which you can double click on a day to get the detailed nutrition and allergen information for that day’s menu items. All menu items meet NSLP (National School Lunch Program), HHFKA (Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act) and state nutrition guidelines and are analyzed and approved by a Registered Dietitian.
Lunch Menus
A healthy lunch is a critical component to the overall educational experience, nourishing the body and setting the stage for a day of learning and knowledge retention. We offer age-appropriate lunch menu options at each grade level, with increasingly more options at the older grade levels as students mature and learn how to make healthier choices. At the elementary school level, we strive to help educate and guide younger students to make balanced meal choices from amongst familiar “kid-friendly” foods made with healthier ingredients. For secondary school students, we offer a food-court style environment with a wide variety of wholesome menu choices.
 Tyngsboro Elementary May,2017 Tyngsboro Elementary June 2017 |
|
|
Snack Menus
Growing bodies sometimes need additional fuel to keep them going throughout the day. Even if students eat a nutritious breakfast and lunch every day, they may still feel hungry at times. Healthy snacking is a quick and convenient way to keep your energy level high and your mind alert so you can be your best at school. We make it easy to snack healthier by limiting snack choices to “Smart Snacks” meeting strict state nutritional requirements and district wellness guidelines.
Home-style Cooking in Small Batches
Our “back to basics” approach to school nutrition has enabled us to get to the heart of what matters: serving wholesome, great tasting food and teaching students to make nutritious meal and snack choices, thus setting the stage for our children to enjoy a more enriching educational experience.
We prepare our food in small batches, with wholesome ingredients, just like you do for your own families. By cooking in small amounts throughout café serving times, our meals remain fresh and delicious, from the first minutes of service to the last student through our doors. Our purchased items, including meat, produce and other ingredients, are delivered fresh or flash frozen, and often come from local vendors. Our culinary-trained executive chefs have tested and refined our recipes, incorporating seasonal food trends and regional taste preferences. Wherever possible, we do “scratch cooking,” making our own sauces, soups, marinades and gravies. We add fresh herbs and spices for the best flavors. The result is wholesome foods made from simple, natural ingredients.
Accommodating Special Dietary Needs
We work closely with students, parents and school nurses to provide nutritional, allergen and ingredient disclosure on the menu items we serve and accommodate doctor-prescribed special diet plans. Allergen information can be viewed on our interactive menus (click on the links above). We also maintain an allergen “right to know” station on every serving line, which includes a detailed listing of all of our food products separated by allergen food categories. In addition, detailed ingredient information is available for our freshly prepared menu items, as well as manufacturer labels for every pre-packaged item (i.e., snacks) through our foodservice director on site.
A note about vegetarian menu items: Whitsons recently re-categorized our vegetarian recipes to exclude pescetarian entrees (containing fish or seafood), based on the latest commonly accepted definition of vegetarian. While there is no “official” definition of the term “vegetarian” and there are multiple forms of vegetarianism, the generic term “vegetarian” has evolved to commonly refer to lacto-ovo vegetarians (those who consume dairy-including milk and cheese-and egg products). Pescetarians (those that eat fish or seafood) have evolved into a separate category. In keeping with these changes, we have altered our definition of “vegetarian” to include vegan and lacto-ovo vegetarian items only. Pescetarians can still enjoy our fish entrees, but should review the ingredients to ensure the entrees don’t contain any animal products they don’t wish to consume.
