IN South Fayette Winter 2016 | Page 52

Getting to Know Our South Fayette Nutritional Department Good Question! We thought we would take a few minutes and answer some questions that we have been asked by our new families that have moved into the district regarding our South Fayette Nutritional Services. South Fayette Nutritional Services has been a leader in the food service field and a role model to many other schools in the area. We offer breakfast in the middle school and high school as well as after-school food service for students at the high school. We have about 300 students who stay after school for tutoring, the arts, and athletics. We provide catering for District events and “Sports 2 GO” meals for our sports teams. outh Fayette SO U TH FAYE T TE TOWN S HI P S CH O OL D IS T RIC T NE WS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW: Please visit our website www.southfayette.org and click on the upper left-hand corner to view our food service information. You can view tours, pictures, pricing, menus, allergy information, and all needed forms. We are also working with our high school media teams to produce an instructional video focused on how to select a meal for our younger students. HOW DO YOU DETERMINE THE PRICE OF THE MEALS? As of February 15, 2012, all schools were mandated to increase pricing based on Section 205 of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010. This ruling is called “Equity in School Lunch Pricing.” We use Price Equity Tool to determine the price of our meals. This provision requires school food authorities (SFAs) participating in the National School Lunch Program to ensure that schools are providing the same level of support for lunches served to students who are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunches (i.e., paid lunches) as they are for lunches served to students eligible for free lunches. WHAT IS THE PRICE OF A MEAL? Please visit our website and look at our charging policy and our price list for each school. HOW MANY MEALS DO YOU SERVE IN 180 DAYS? We serve approximately 450,000 meals in 180 days. We serve approx. 83% of our students and staff throughout the school day. We also provide the hot foods for the concession stands and “Sports 2 GO” meals for our sports teams. WHAT ABOUT SPECIAL DIETS OR ALLERGIES? Our Nutritional Services has a special dietary team that operates with one major goal in mind: to feed the students and keep them safe. We have students who are diabetic, have allergies from gluten and peanut, etc. We work as a team with our school nurses to provide special meals for our students during the school day. You should contact your child’s school nurse or Tricia Wood, Director of Nutritional Services, at 724.693.3019 for information. WHAT IS A PREMIUM MEAL? Premium meals are offered throughout the month. This enables us to purchase premium quality, slightly higher priced main entrée items, and higher priced fruits or snack bags to make up that meal. This gives our food service department the flexibility to purchase the highest quality items and try to avoid purchasing processed food items, seconds 50 South Fayette or generic items. Our goal is to select whole foods, 100% beef, and white breast meat chicken products that are available. WHY IS WHOLE MILK OR 2% MILK NOT OFFERED? Great question! The regulations for the meal programs require that flavored milks can only be flavored skim milk. Plain milk can only be offered as 1% milk. Whole milk and 2% are not permitted to be served in schools. ARE CONDIMENTS AN EXTRA CHARGE? All meals are accompanied with complimentary condiments (i.e. ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato). However, specialty dipping cups such as BBQ, Honey Mustard or Ranch Dip cups are not included in the price of the meal. Over the years, our students have requested these special dips. They are considered a la carte and charged accordingly. If you don’t want your student to purchase a la carte, please call or send in a note and we will indicate that on his/her lunch account. I ATTEND THE MIDDLE SCHOOL AND I’VE HEARD THAT IF I PACK MY LUNCH I AM NOT ALLOWED TO PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THE FOOD COURT. IS THIS TRUE? No, this is not true. If you pack a lunch you may visit the food court and purchase accompaniments such as beverages, snacks, fruits, or vegetables. Every student has an account (it is based on their student ID number – every student has an account automatically