Students help revamp Orange County school lunch menu

Lunch menus at schools across Orange County will soon be revamped, and those changes will be based on choices by the district’s toughest critics—students.

Students at Dream Elementary School in Apopka casts their votes via iPads during a tasting Thursday.

The process showed the important need to continue free or reduced meal programs.

The goal of the taste test was to get all of the students on the same page when it comes to what they eat for breakfast and lunch at school.

“We don’t want the food to end up in the trash can, so we do our homework ahead,” said Lora Gilbert, senior director of Orange County Public Schools’ Food and Nutrition Program.

Nutrition, along with federal dollars, plays a big role in what students end up eating.

In Orange County schools, it takes $1.05 per day to feed on student lunch.

For breakfast, it’s 95 cents.

And it takes about $77 million from the USDA to make it happen.

“People don’t realize that almost 69 percent of our children qualify for free or reduced lunch,” said Orange County Public School superintendent Dr. Barabara Jenkins. “That means, economically from their households, their income levels are at a stage where they either qualify for a reduced lunch or free lunch.”

After the students’ votes are tallied, some of the items may appear on the lunch menu next school year.

Cox Media Group