More than love goes into these NDA lunches

Here at NDA we have always prided ourselves on serving tasty, nutritious lunches to our kids. This year we decided to take that up a notch and make a concerted effort to reduce the amount of pre-packaged food items, canned fruits and vegetables, and highly processed items we serve. In fact, Mrs. Miller has made a pledge to make 80% of the food our students eat from scratch this year! We’ve started with converting a few stand by menu items to handmade to rave reviews and continue to add more and more as the year goes on.

Why?

Combined with Mrs. Miller’s passion for fresh, whole foods and desire to make sure our kids have what they need to learn, it felt like the right time to give it a shot! Studies have shown that students who eat more whole and unprocessed foods at breakfast and lunch helps to improve concentration and provides students with more sustained energy throughout the day.

We want to make sure our students have access to the nutrition they need to do their best.

What does that look like?

Swedish Meatballs
- Swapped out premade meatballs for homemade recipes with individual ingredients
- No more canned gravy, all homemade
- 700 meatballs hand rolled by NDA’s favorite lunch ladies
Mashed Potatoes
- Real potatoes peeled and mashed rather than dehydrated potato flakes
- 100 lbs. of potatoes
Breakfast Bars
- Removed frozen, premade breakfast bars from the menu
- Replaced with homemade Apple and Rolled Oat breakfast bars
Soups
- No more prepackaged soups
- Made from scratch soups
  - Stuffed baked potato soup
  - Chicken noodle
  - Chili
Gluten free options at almost every lunch for our kids that have gluten sensitivities

Fresh Produce
- Apples
- Oranges
- Kiwis
- Bananas
- Grapes
- Nectarines
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Broccoli
- Edamame
- Peas
New Items
- Chocolate chip sheet pan pancakes
- Homemade fruit smoothies with fresh and fresh frozen fruit
- Homemade whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffins
- Homemade baked mac and cheese