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S4 E5 - What's For Lunch? · Inside the OSD

• 0:04
  SPEAKER1: Lunch is a part of the school day that every student has in common, and it's a highlight for many.
• 0:10
  This week we are celebrating National School Lunch Week, and we have a lot to be excited about with our own school meal program.
• 0:17
  Today we're talking with our school Nutrition Director to learn more about our meal program and the creative ways she gets kids excited about school breakfast
• 0:26
  and lunch.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER2: Welcome to this episode of Inside the OSD podcast, where it's all about the kids.
• 0:33
  Here is your host, lifelong educator, and our superintendent, Doctor Leslie Bergstrom.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER3: Let's start with introducing yourself to our listeners and sharing a little bit about your background.
• 0:45
  Hi, I'm Mandy Bienlein. I am the director of nutrition and food service for the Oregon School District.
• 0:52
  I've now made it a whole year. Yay! So that's exciting.
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  So this is the second year. Um, I guess I came -- a little bit about my background.
• 1:01
  I've always been in the food industry. I started in the restaurant world, and then during the pandemic,
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  and then after the pandemic, I moved to California, and that's where I kind of started the school system and started working at
• 1:13
  Stanford, and I loved it. So then I came on back to Wisconsin home, and I found this job.
• 1:20
  And
• 1:20
  SPEAKER1: we're so glad you did. And I was--always fascinating for me.
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  I remember thinking back to your interview about how what you learned doing work at Stanford,
• 1:30
  how much that was going to transfer into the work here.
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  It was just fun to listen to you talk about it.
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  So yay for the first year and here we go.
• 1:39
  How would you describe the goals of our school nutrition program to our listeners?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER3: Well, I think the main goal is to provide healthy meals to our students.
• 1:47
  Yes. Um, and then we try to do it through creative and fun ways, because to me,
• 1:52
  food is fun. And hopefully it's fun for other people too. Yeah.
• 1:55
  Um, I think of food as that's what I look forward to in life.
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  So I hope that's what the students are looking forward to. Maybe they don't have the greatest food at home or not.
• 2:04
  Everyone's a great cook, so they want to come to school and get those fun meals.
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  SPEAKER1: But food is fun, you know? And I do believe that that's something that's important to convey to kids that food and nutrition
• 2:19
  is fun. Like feeding your body well can be fun, right?
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  SPEAKER3: It can be, um, just like we are part of the national school program.
• 2:29
  Yeah. And that's kind of more of a program to make sure that we're following all the guidelines.
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  Sure. But they don't always have to think of it as the guidelines, but they can be fun.
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  We have to use different color vegetables.
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  Yes. We have to use--
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  SPEAKER1: And I see that when I when I look at the serving lines, it's colorful!
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  SPEAKER3: It is colorful.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER1: Yeah.
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  SPEAKER3: I love it when all the students will take different colors of the rainbow.
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  Yes, for their trays. But it's fun for them to also try a new vegetable.
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  And those are kind of the goals that I'd like to see to coming up in the future is to try different vegetables for them.
• 3:01
  Um, right now I just found a root vegetable milk mix for the high school.
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  So we'll see if they know what parsnips are.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, that should be interesting. All right.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER3: We try to play with the seasons as well.
• 3:13
  Of course! This month is big on apples because it started the fall.
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  And we had the Big Apple crunch last Thursday.
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  And so I'm trying to incorporate more Apple things this month.
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  SPEAKER1: So kids will love that.
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  SPEAKER3: Exactly. Yeah. We're trying an apple chicken salad at the high school for the grab and go.
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  Um, so just trying to bring those things to light.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER1: Actually, that does sound super fun. How will you prepare the root vegetable medley in a way that you think will be appealing to our high schoolers?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER3: We're going to roast them so they're a little crispier.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER1: Because that's always best.
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  SPEAKER3: Give it a little crunch.
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  SPEAKER1: Yes.
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  SPEAKER3: Um, and it has a mixture of sweet potatoes and different root vegetables.
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  So it'll be fun to see if they know the different vegetables are too.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER1: Yeah.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER3: Um, but definitely living here in Oregon, there's a lot of farms, so I know some people are more familiar.
• 4:04
  Yes, definitely the FFA. We have a lot of students part of that.
• 4:07
  Yes. And that's even a group with Jillian that I'm working with, which hopefully that we can use fresh herbs when they start growing them and
• 4:15
  incorporate them into our meals.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER1: Yes. That would be terrific. So as you mentioned, we are a part of the National School program.
• 4:23
  What is it and what does it mean for our meals?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER3: Sure. It--like I was saying, it was the guidelines.
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  Right. Um, we have to serve five different components.
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  So it's the meat/meat alternative. The grain, the dairy, the vegetable and the fruit.
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  Okay. And since we're offer versus serve, students are able to choose three of the five meal components,
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  which is great. We'll give them the option of what they want.
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  And if you ever look at our menus, we actually have two kinds of vegetables for them,
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  two kinds of fruit. So if they don't like something, hopefully they like the other. Yeah. So they can build those trays for us, and
• 4:57
  maybe they can try something new too.
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  SPEAKER1: That's the goal. Now, could they have two fruits or two vegetables as opposed to one of the other so they can mix and match within those five?
• 5:06
  Right?
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  SPEAKER3: They can mix and match.
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  SPEAKER1: Okay. Um, and I bet that's part of what makes it fun too, is that there's a little bit of choice involved.
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  And it isn't just like, "here's the lunch, whether you like it or not," right?
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  Like, they get to pick something from this extensive--And it is pretty extensive menu for the fact that you're serving at the high school,
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  you know, well over a thousand kids potentially.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER3: Yeah. There is something I feel for everybody.
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  Yeah. We have a salad bar. Sandwich bar.
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  Then we have the hot options. Yes. Um, we make a different daily hot option every day.
• 5:37
  But then we also do hot grab and go. Yeah.
• 5:40
  I mean, it could be a little more fun stuff like it's pizza and stuff to our guidelines.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER1: Well, yeah. And that gets into the next question really is what are we actively doing to make sure our food is as healthy as possible so that we are meeting
• 5:53
  those guidelines and in some cases, exceeding those guidelines?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER3: Yes. Um, right now, this year we did eliminate all dyes.
• 6:00
  Wow. And I know that was a big thing statewide and countywide that we're--I think it's in two years where we have to eliminate them.
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  SPEAKER1: And you did
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  SPEAKER3: it ahead
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  SPEAKER1: of time. Wonderful.
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  SPEAKER3: We decided to do it ahead of time, which was nice. We don't also use salt while cooking,
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  which is interesting, but it's also we use salt free herbs and stuff like that.
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  So you can really have more flavor and like kind of flavor the food.
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  SPEAKER1: It doesn't have to be from salt.
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  SPEAKER3: Like salt instead of just tasting salt.
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  SPEAKER1: Right, right.
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  SPEAKER3: Which I think is great. We don't use butter for cooking.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, wow. So olive oil or what? What do you use when
• 6:42
  SPEAKER3: you need it?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER1: Okay.
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  SPEAKER3: Different oil blends will use. Um. But then right now, even going into the future,
• 6:49
  we're looking at putting in a commissary kitchen, which will be better for the kitchens all around,
• 6:56
  the food all around, because you use less sodium in it, because you're scratch cooking. So a commissary kitchen,
• 7:01
  it's not going to.
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  SPEAKER1: Thanks for describing it, because I was going to have to ask you anyway, so I'm glad you're describing it.
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  SPEAKER3: It'll take a few years to see where my vision goes and how I want it to get to, but it's more I'm going to start at the high school,
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  but we want to make things from scratch because it's cheaper to make things from scratch,
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  and it's better product when you make from scratch, because when you're buying it,
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  it just has more sodium and all the preservatives in it.
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  Yes, exactly. So if we can start making things here and in-house at one school, and then we can put it at the other schools,
• 7:32
  we'd send it out.
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  SPEAKER1: That's exciting. And does our current high school kitchen, as far as the facilities go,
• 7:40
  does it meet the requirements for making it a commissary kitchen?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER3: It does. We have plenty of staff there, which is great.
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  And they the staff, all of our staff, they all want to help and they all want to produce something fun.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER1: Yes. So you do have wonderful staff in the school nutrition program.
• 7:57
  You really do.
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  SPEAKER3: So they take pride. They even send me little texts, or they email me and be like,
• 8:01
  "oh, have you seen this recipe? Can we do something like this?" Um, one of our,
• 8:06
  our kitchen coordinator over at the middle school sent me overnight oats, and she's like, "Mandy, I really think the students here would love overnight
• 8:12
  oats." So right now, I'm trying to find a recipe so that abides by all of our.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER1: Yes, all of the guidelines. Absolutely.
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  SPEAKER3: Um, to see if they like it.
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  SPEAKER1: Oh, that would be fantastic. I love overnight oats.
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  Yeah, hopefully
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  SPEAKER3: they would,
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  SPEAKER1: too. Yeah, I hope so. So you just gave me a great example, but what are some other creative things your team does to make the food
• 8:34
  attractive to the kids?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER3: Well, I know recently I had a name of, um, I did nacho breaded fish sticks.
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  Yes, yes. And I got a lot of buzz.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER1: Because people hadn't heard of it before. People had heard of it.
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  SPEAKER3: And I just saw the nacho breading that fit our guidelines, which was great.
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  And, um, try to give this-- the kids love chicken and I'm trying to get step outside their comfort zone from chicken.
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  SPEAKER1: Yeah, absolutely.
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  SPEAKER3: Give him some fish, give them some other items.
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  And I was like, "wait, who doesn't like cheese? You're from Wisconsin." Um, so I called it nacho bread because I was like,
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  "well, let's see if that will get them excited for the meal and take the fish sticks that day."
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  SPEAKER1: How did how did they do? How did they nacho fish sticks?
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  Oh, I'm glad to hear it.
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  SPEAKER3: I think I want to make them into tacos. That was the ultimate goal, but
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  SPEAKER1: I wanted to see if they
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  SPEAKER3: liked them first.
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  SPEAKER1: Yes, absolutely. Because when I saw that, the first thing I thought of was fish tacos,
• 9:26
  right? So that is the next step. Oh, okay.
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  Thank you. Um, what's on the horizon? You spoke about the commissary kitchen, which is super exciting.
• 9:35
  Is there anything else that you see as the next step out there?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER3: Well, I'm trying to do this school year.
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  Um, the second Thursday of every month is a "try it" day.
• 9:45
  Yeah. So whether it's a new item I put on the menu this year, it could be a breakfast item,
• 9:48
  it could be a lunch item, or it could just be us going to the kitchen and try maybe a different vegetable.
• 9:53
  Okay. For all the--
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  SPEAKER1: So that's going to be something that gives every kid an opportunity to try something new,
• 10:00
  basically. Correct. Yes. Which is which is wonderful.
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  And I'm sure that's something parents are trying all the time. So if you are achieving success in that,
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  you know, congratulations. That's really, really great.
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  SPEAKER3: And I've learned kids are very truthful. So if
• 10:15
  SPEAKER1: they don't tell you something they
• 10:16
  SPEAKER3: will let me know, which is great.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER1: I completely agree with you. And now school meals are really different from when I was a student.
• 10:24
  Um, and many of our parents, obviously. How can we get information if they are interested in learning more about school nutrition and what we're offering,
• 10:33
  or if they have questions?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER3: Yeah, you can find everything on our website.
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  There's information on there. Otherwise they can um, my email is on there as well.
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  So they can email me.
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  SPEAKER1: Okay.
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  SPEAKER3: I have no issues with answering any questions.
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  SPEAKER1: Absolutely. Because this matters, right?
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  What--What our kids eat. It matters for their health and for the peace of mind.
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  I think of a lot of our families, too, knowing that they're getting high quality food at school.
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  So I love that you're open to their questions.
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  And then finally, it takes a whole team of caring adults to prepare and serve two meals a day at seven different schools.
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  So tell us about how interested community members could maybe join our team and what that entails.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER3: Yes, we actually have some positions.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER1: Great.
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  SPEAKER3: Which we have probably about eight subs right now.
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  And they're all past people who've gone to the school a lot of or they have children or grandchildren going to this district.
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  SPEAKER1: Which is great
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  SPEAKER3: to see. So they just come and help us through lunch.
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  It's typically when someone requests off and we need to fill a spot, or someone is sick at last minute and they come in.
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  So you're more we have all the positions up on our website.
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  SPEAKER1: Okay.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER3: But we're always looking for more sub and more help. And people who are passionate about cooking and just having fun in the And kitchens.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER1: Absolutely. And when I am walking by, people are having fun.
• 11:54
  You can hear, you can hear the laughter as they're doing what they're doing for our kids.
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  So everyone, you can find more information on our school nutrition program at our district website at www.OregonSD.org In the
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  "families" section. Remember that you can find links to all episodes of Inside the OSD and submit topic ideas on our
• 12:18
  website at OregonSD.org/podcast. You can find this podcast anywhere you can find podcasts.
• 12:27
  Make sure to subscribe if you're listening on one of these apps to get notifications on the most recent episodes.
• 12:33
  We'll see you next time on Inside the OSD, where it's all about the kids.