Thursday, February 07, 2008

Lunch line adventures

Long before most of us are done dreaming, the workers at Fort Belvoir Elementary School’s cafeteria are preparing for the daily morning breakfast and lunch. From planning the menus to predicting what will be used to ordering the food online, the system runs like clockwork. Even on a recent rainy Friday that had school starting late, efficiency was evident as the workers swarmed about the kitchen in a coordinated effort to set it up for the day ahead.

At first glance, the kitchen seems small to handle the hundreds of meals that it does, but it is the attention to detail and the individual efforts that make it run well. As the day begins, deliveries of milk, bread, entrees, paper supplies and desserts arrive hourly.

Servers and cooks start to count and arrange food items and stock the serving line making sure everything is in order to serve the almost 1,000 lunches daily.

Then, the food is placed on trays for heating in a balance of steps that looks similar to an assembly line and the day’s lunch begins. The doors for the three lines that serve the eight classes from each grade open and the students begin to trickle in. Eyes that are food level study the selections and little hands reach up and food is placed on trays. The younger children are often prompted by cheery servers and smiling cashiers, who often know their names and help students keep focused.

Fort Belvoir Elementary is just one of the 200 schools and centers in Fairfax County system that provides food service to students, children and the elderly. This system allows a productive and proficient program that saves money and is able to initiate ideas on a large scale. The energy zone system of color-coded stars for the children, has charts explaining food nutrition both in the lunch line and online for parents.

“It’s always a battle. We are faced with providing good tasting food that is nutritious, attractive and varied. It’s not as easy as it seems,“ said Paul Lamay, Fairfax County Food Service Specialist.  “There is more than just a small effort to make sure these meals involve whole grains, vegetables and fruits and fewer calories from fat. We pre-cut and pre-package fruits and vegetables making it attractive for selection,“ said Lamay.

While today’s menu is not too far from the sloppy joe’s, pizza bread and spaghetti from the past, it continues to change. So, while you won’t be seeing sushi anytime soon, healthful choices of salads and whole wheat rolls have joined entrees and more seasonal fresh fruit has arrived, joining the ever popular pepperoni pizza, which seems to hit the spot with most students.