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Our Nutrition Blog
Our Nutrition Blog
Venture’s Kitchen is the official blog of Venture Academy, an expeditionary school in Marriott-Slaterville, Utah. We aim to get our students, their parents, and teachers involved in nutrition education. By providing you with access to information, we strive to empower you to make better dietary choices not just at school but at home as well.
Changes for the Week of 5/20 thru 5/25 2019
Changes for the Week of 5/20 thru 5/25 2019
The following changes will be made to the menu:
Breakfast on Monday 5/20, Breakfast pizza will be changed to Breakfast Corn dog.
Lunch on 5/21, Chicken Nuggets will be changed to Chicken Strips.
Breakfast on 5/22, Donuts will be changed to Biscuits and Gravy.
Grab n go on 5/22, and 5/24 Bean Burrito will be changed to Corn Dog bites.
Changes for 4/22 and 4/23 2019
Changes for 4/22 and 4/23 2019
We will be switching this Monday and Tuesday's menu (4/22-4/23) with next Monday and Tuesday's menu (4/29-4/30).
Monday 4/22 will be Breakfast Corn Dog and Tuesday 4/23 will be Breakfast Banana Split.
Monday 4/29 will be Breakfast Pizza and Tuesday 4/30 will be Scones.
Changes for 4/11/2019
Changes for 4/11/2019
Grab n go will be changed from
Chicken Bacon Ranch Wrap to
Corn dogs at the Academy and
Turkey Ham Stuffwich
at the High School
Menu Changes for 3/27/2019
Menu Changes for 3/27/2019
Thursday 3/28, the main breakfast entree will be changed from
Breakfast Bagel Sandwich to Yogurt Parfait,
Thursday 3/28 and Friday 3/29 Grab n go will change from
Trix bars to Breakfast Bites.
Menu Changes for 3/25/2019
Menu Changes for 3/25/2019
Chicken Fajita Pasta will be Changed to
Pizza Sticks and Marinara
Menu Changes for 3/20/2019
Menu Changes for 3/20/2019
Our lunch entree items will be changed
from Chicken Alfredo and Pulled Pork Sandwich to
Hamburger and Chicken Fajita Pasta.
Menu Change for 3/15/2019
Menu Change for 3/15/2019
Grab n go lunch will be changed from Brazilian Enchilada to
Cal zones and Chicken Nuggets at the Academy
and Chicken Strips at the High School.
Menu Changes for 3/12/2019 thru 3/14/2019
Menu Changes for 3/12/2019 thru 3/14/2019
Grab n go breakfast for Tuesday 3/12 and Wednesday 3/13 will change from Breakfast Pizza Stuffwich to Lucky Charms Breakfast Kits
The Breakfast Entrees for Wednesday 3/13 and Thursday 3/14 will be will be switched. Tuesday is now Breakfast Corn dog and Thursday Yogurt Parfait.
Menu Changes for 3/11/2019
Menu Changes for 3/11/2019
Our main entree today will be changed from Mandarin Orange Chicken to Egg Rolls
Menu Changes for 5/7-5/82018
Menu Changes for 5/7-5/82018
Our main entrees will be switched for today and tomorrow.
Monday 5/7 we will have Taco in a bag and Tuesday 5/8 we will have Chicken Alfredo.
Changes for 3/21/2018
Changes for 3/21/2018
Today's change is for our grab n go.
We will be having Turkey/Ham Stuffwich
instead of Chicken Bacon Ranch Stuffwich.
Changes for 3/8 and 3/9/2018
Changes for 3/8 and 3/9/2018
We will be changing our grab n gos from barbecue chicken sandwich on Thursday and Brazilian chicken enchilada on Friday to pizza rippers both days.
Venture School meals are “Rightsized”
Venture School meals are “Rightsized”
“Rightsized”, that is not my word but I like it! I found it on a document that the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service prepared. It was made to help School Nutrition Professionals answer questions about the changes in the School Lunch Program that were enacted through the Hungry Healthy Free Kids Act. We have all heard of supersized, but in the School Lunch Program we do rightsized. School meals are “rightsized.”
Our main entrée is one of the favorite parts of our school meals, that and our new Juice. :) Our entrees are rightsized. In their entrée, the students are getting the correct portions of protein and often grain for their age. Our students may not be full if they only eat the entrée. If you refer to the USDA’s MyPlate image, you will see that their recommended meal portions suggest the biggest part of any meal we eat should be vegetables and healthy grains. Protein and fruit should be consumed in smaller amounts. Our nutrition regulations are very similar to Myplate. We offer the correct portions for all students. When we eat food in the USDA’s suggested sizes, we are more likely to feel full, have more energy and more brain power. It is also important to eat from all categories to receive those benefits.
We recognize that some students of the same age require more food than most students to be full and get the great gains from healthy food. That is one of the reasons why we offer the all-you-can-eat salad bar. We also employ offer vs. serve on our line so that students have choices as to how much they eat. Our students at Venture Academy are pretty good at making good decisions when it comes to all types of food that we offer. As Child Nutrition Professionals and parents, we can do many things to encourage our students to make good food choices. That will be the topic of our next blog.
In the meantime, …. Venture Meals are “Rightsized.”
Changes for 2/16 and 2/22/2018
Changes for 2/16 and 2/22/2018
We will be switching the second entrees for Today 2/16/2018
and Thursday 2/22/2018.
Today we will have Chicken Noodle Soup
instead of Tacos
and Thursday we will have Tacos
instead of Chicken Noodle soup..
Why Grab N Go meals?
A few years ago we introduced our first grab n go meals. We started offering them because students often came to breakfast just before the bell rang or even late. They were usually hungry and they could either eat and go to class late or just go to class hungry. Grab n go meals have been a great solution to this problem.
The breakfast grab n go meals were so successful, we decided to introduce them at lunch. We had been battling long lunch lines and we were hoping that grab n go lunches might help with that problem. They were very well received and we started adding more entrée choices at each lunch. We now have two grab n go choices a day at the Academy and three at the High School. On Wednesdays we have three at the Academy and four at the high school. Our grab n go meals are now consumed by about a third of our students at each meal.
Our breakfast grab n go meals contains an entrée, fruit and one or two extra protein/grain sides and their choice of juice, milk or water. The lunch grab n go meals contains the entrée, fruit, vegetable, and between two and four sides of grain/protein and their choice of milk, juice or water. The lunch grab n go also has access to the all-you-can-eat salad bar. We rotate different choices of entrees, fruits and sides so that the grab n go meals stay interesting. We have found that students like to save the sides and use them as snacks during the day. We are happy that they have that option.
Each month we send out a grab n go menu for both breakfast and lunch. These menus are the most likely to change. We are able to use extra menu items from the day before so as not to waste food. This is a great option for the students because it is often our most popular items that we substitute. These substitutions happen mostly with the entrée and the fruit. We are thrilled that we now have this blog to post the changes when we make them.
We love our grab n go program but as always, we would love to hear from you. Please tell us what your students like and what they would like to see changed.
1/22-1/23 Changes
1/22-1/23 Changes
We have several changes over the next two days. We have a rippling effect from a short on our truck Friday.
Today's changes are:
Pasta and Marinara will be subbed for Chicken Tenders
Brazilian Chicken Enchilada will be subbed for Minestrone Soup.
Bosco Bread sticks will be subbed for Dinner Rolls
Apples will be subbed for Mandarin Oranges
Tomorrow's changes are:
Oven Baked Chicken will be subbed for Pasta and Marinara
Chicken Rice Soup will be subbed for Brazilian Enchilada at the Academy
Minestrone Soup will be subbed for the Brazilian Enchilada at the High School
Oranges will be subbed for Pineapple
Dinner Rolls will be subbed for Bosco Breadsticks
:
Thanks!
1/17/2018 Changes
1/17/2018 Changes
We will serve Yogurt Parfaits instead of French toast for breakfast. French toast will be served on Friday instead of Benefit Bars.
Venture’s All-you-can-eat Salad Bar
Venture’s All-you-can-eat Salad Bar
We are in our 9th year of Venture Academy’s school lunch program. Since the beginning, we have offered a salad bar and our students have made great use of it. We originally added the salad bar so our students could eat fruits and vegetables that were new and familiar. As the Healthy Hungry Free Kids Act was passed into law and the interpretations started to come from the USDA, it also became useful to help meet those regulations. We love that our students love our salad bar and we thought
it would be fun to share some facts about the Salad Bar.
1. There are 2-3 fruits, 4-6 vegetables and a salad mix that includes spring mix every day.
2. The fruits and vegetables change daily.
3. Our grab n go lunches include the all-you-can-eat salad bar.
4. Regulations prevent us from offering Salad bar to students who don’t purchase school lunch. (We wish we could.)
5. We are required to offer dark green, red/orange, legumes, starchy and “other” vegetables every week. (We are a big fan of this regulation.)
6. We go through 75lbs. of carrots and 65 lbs. of salad mix a week.
7. We use different scoop sizes for different age groups so that they get an appropriate amount and take more than one item.
8. Each student is required to take a half cup of fruit and/or vegetables a day. Most of that comes from the salad bar.
9. We see less of the vegetables from the salad bar come back than we do the vegetables from the line.
10. Our Venture Academy student’s favorite fruit is Mandarin oranges. Their second favorite fruit is fresh apples.
The pictured above is of our salad bar after lunch today. We tried multi colored cauliflower and they took it all. We are happy about that and we will be offering that on our line now.
We would love to hear about unusual fruits and vegetables that your students eat. We will try some of them on our salad bar.
Kids who eat fruits and vegetables tend to make healthier food choices all around.
1/12/2018 Changes
1/12/2018 Changes
Good Morning,
We have a couple of changes this morning. We will be serving pulled pork burritos in our grab n go instead of ham and turkey rippers and we have changed our fruit from bananas to oranges. Have a great weekend!
New Lunch Item
New Lunch Item
Good Morning, We are making 2 substitutions today. 1. We will be substituting topical fruit for oranges. 2.This Substitution is fun. We are subbing Anytimers for our Pizza sticks in our grab n go. The are like Lunchables but they come with whole grain pizza bread, turkey pepperoni and low fat cheese.. We would love to hear feedback about this item. Have a greaat day!
Welcome to our new Venture’s Kitchen Blog!
Welcome to our new Venture’s Kitchen Blog!
Venture Families,
Our main purpose for starting this blog is to create a fun and effective means of communication that is easy for our Venture community to use. We really look forward to the participation of students and parents on this blog. We believe that with feedback, we can make our lunch program even better!
We are excited to introduce some features of the blog.
- Our blog page will keep you updated with all of the Lunch Program news as well as changes to the menu. Changes usually happen because of shortages on our delivery or a need to substitute an offering.. Our goal is to have daily changes to the menu updated by 9:00 a. m.
- We will share new items added to our menu and seek feedback on these items and other lunch program features. We love to hear from you.
- You will find information about nutrition and the regulations that we follow as we administer our lunch program. We often have inquiries about those two topics and we look forward to communicating that information..
- Venture’s Kitchen has a recipe page, we will post the recipes with our suggestions and experiences on our blog and then put only the recipe on the recipe page. We have had many requests for recipes and we can’t wait to share them.
- The last thing we will introduce in this post is an upcoming feature. We are pleased to tell you that we will have a menu calendar on our blog page. We recognize that our current software only produces a semi readable calendar. We can’t wait for this new item!! Look for it sometime in January.
We love our Venture students, families and faculty! Thank you for all of your support!
Marcell Kearney
(Lunch Program Director)
and the most amazing Team ever!!