Aiken school district upgrades dining experience for new school year
Jul. 21—Aiken County Public School District has partnered with Chartwells School Dining Services to provide high-quality meals to students. The district's food professionals engaged in a special culinary training program last week, led by Chartwells and their Regional Executive Chef Imani Colclough. This training has allowed those who are in charge of preparing food for students across the district to improve their cooking techniques and further develop their nutritional knowledge.
Thanks to Community Eligibility Provision, which the Aiken County Board of Education recently approved for implementation, all students in the district will now be able to enjoy no-cost breakfast and lunch at school.
Polly Peyinghaus, the district's school food service coordinator, said that CEP helps make it possible to expand what is provided in the lunchroom.
"With CEP and with the partnership we have with Chartwells, we're able to offer new innovative menu options and new innovative ways to serve our kids," she said.
Funding for student meals will continue to come from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Colclough, who previously owned his own restaurant in Charlotte, North Carolina, assisted in supervising the training. He believes that children deserve to experience great food that opens them up to experiencing other cultures. He also noted that some children rely on school dining as their only source of food.
"They're really counting on these meals as a part of just surviving," he said.
Training included lessons on nutrition, garnish preparation, a variety of cooking techniques such as stir frying and pizza making, and even customer service training. Peyinghaus said that the goal is to make eating in the lunchroom feel like visiting a nice restaurant.
"We want the students to feel like they're walking into a corner restaurant or cafe, not down the hall into the school cafeteria," he said.
Chartwells Area Director Peggy Luther spoke about the types of meals that will now be offered to Aiken County students. "We will offer six to eight different options every day in a high school," she said. "We'll have a variety."
Students can look forward to a wider selection of pizzas, Latin and Asian food stations, and food prepared with fresh fruits and vegetables — just to name a fraction of what will be available.
According to Luther, if a school has enough space, they can even offer made-to-order deli sandwiches.
The school district staff and Chartwells team members are looking forward to what the future holds for school dining capabilities. "I'm really excited about the fact that they get to create food that they're proud of," said Colclough about the week's trainees. "I think they're going to be awesome."
Through CEP, all students will enjoy one breakfast and one lunch at no cost. However, should a student wish to purchase an à la carte specialty item such as Hershey's ice cream or chips, which will be offered in middle and high school cafés, cash or funds available in the student's Meal Payments Portal will be needed.
The district's Meal Payments Portal, TITAN Family Portal, has been upgraded to LINQ Connect. Login information for families already using TITAN Family Portal will be transferred over to LINQ Connect, so, for existing users, there will be no need to set up a new username and password.
LINQ Connect will allow families to set up one-time or recurring payments, set spending limits, transfer funds between students, set low-balance notifications and more. Because payment will be needed for those specialty items at the time of service, students will not acquire new lunch debt beginning this year.
Students and families will soon be able to access menus and ingredients, and have an opportunity to provide feedback on the new meal offerings. Students with dietary restrictions or special dietary needs will be able to filter menu options and easily identify which menu items align with their needs.
