What I Learned About School Lunches at the School Nutrition Association Annual National Conference

This post is brought to you by the School Nutrition Association. All opinions are my own.

Until last week, I honestly didn’t know much about what went into getting lunches in front of kids for 9 months of the year. I have always assumed that there was just one big company that made a bunch of premade meals, mailed them to schools, and then they were microwaved minutes before lunch began. I was so incredibly wrong! Not only are the meals being prepared at the schools {in most cases, or in another local kitchen for schools without a kitchen}, but there are so many different people and different steps behind what ends up on a lunch tray.

Last week, I went to the School Nutrition Association convention here in Vegas, where my eyes were opened up to what goes on in the school lunch industry- in the best way possible. I had the chance to walk around the expo floor, learning from people who make it their career to make sure kids get healthy, fun lunches that can allow them to stay focused while learning all day. I attended a few sessions where I learned about up and coming trends {and found out that there are very strict guidelines to what makes an acceptable lunch, and that all schools need to adhere to those guidelines!} and also had the opportunity to walk around the giant expo floor!

I spent almost four hours on the expo floor, and didn’t even get to see it all in that amount of time- there was so much to see. There were new foods to try, new technology to check out, and new trends that are up and coming in the world of school lunch.

On the show floor, there was a lot of food to be sampled! During my first lap around, we didn’t sample much- we were on a mission. I was paired with someone from right here in Clark County, and she had a list of what brands she needed to meet with. She is looking for certain food items for our school district, such as a softer tortilla and educational snacks, and with a giant convention center full of potential choices, she wanted to find just the right products for our kids.

I learned that there’s a huge process that occurs before a food ever makes it into a cafeteria here. In fact, it usually takes about two years from when they look for a product to when they actually begin to serve it. They first seek out what they want to use, then they test it and open a bidding process, where competitive brands can submit their versions of the food in question so that the school district can decide which brand is the best taste for the best price. During this time, the decision makers are not allowed to receive any samples, but they are allowed to purchase them. Eventually, after more paperwork, those foods can be found in school cafeterias.

A lot of the foods that I saw out on the floor were from brands I hadn’t heard of- companies that generally just serve in big quantities, things you can’t just pick up at the grocery store. That said, the more I walked around, the more I began to find brands I recognized, like Kellogg’s and even Super Pretzel!

I saw lots of foods I’m familiar with being used in new and different ways, like the Eggo Mini Pancakes in the fruit skewers above or the Jurassic World Graham Crackers in those parfaits. I was wondering how Eggo and the graham crackers could possibly meet the nutrition standards that I had just found out were pretty strict, but I found out that even though the product might look the same as what we see on shelves at the store, it probably isn’t. There’s something called a “K-12 food” and it’s a version of the “traditional” food that is approved for school use- made with whole grains, under a certain amount of sugar, etc.

Not only did I learn about the new types of food while I was there, but I learned about the new ways that the food is being served! Just like in the real world, trends like mobile ordering, food trucks, and even “Instagram worthy” food are all things that are being focused on in the school lunch arena right now. In fact, food golf carts are becoming a thing, which at first I was confused by, but now they make SO much sense.

In high school, I had just 20 minutes to eat my lunch. However, I was on a huge campus and it took me a solid five minutes to walk to the cafeteria, and by then the line could be up to 10 minutes long, leaving me under 5 minutes to eat and get to my next class. With a food golf cart, which is retrofitted with hot and cold sections for food safety, the food can go to wherever the kids are- not only saving them time from having to walk to get it, but cutting down on the lines as well.

Ordering ahead is a big thing right now, too. I also learned that mobile ordering is huge, especially now that most high school kids- and even middle school kids- have cell phones. Kids can place an order ahead of time, as early as 2 days ahead of time and as late as one hour before the first lunch. Then when it’s their lunch time, kids can go to a separate window, show their confirmation number, and get their meal right away, leaving them more time to eat!

Self-service is huge, too, for many reasons. The lunch line moves faster since the kids complete the meals themselves, and there’s less prep that goes in since a lot of the assembly is done at the flavor bars. It also lets kids customize food to their liking, and they can even make it Insta-worthy. I saw “make your own” bars for everything from flatbread tacos to macaroni and cheese to meatballs.

It wasn’t all about the food at the expo- I learned about tech advances, too! Something I was excited about was this new app that’s available in a lot of places, including my school district starting this fall! The app makes it easy to pay for lunches, see what’s being served, and even filter by allergies or other food restrictions to see what options your child has.

Like I said, there was a LOT of food at the expo- but don’t worry, it wasn’t wasted! Whatever wasn’t eaten was donated to the Three Square Food Bank, which was nice to see.

Keep an eye out here when school starts up next month to find out more about what’s happening on the local Vegas lunch scene!

Do your kids eat lunch at school? Have you noticed any new trends lately?