Newton Parrish food services staff honored

Aug. 19—The Newton Parrish Elementary School food services staff was named "Team of the Year" by the Kentucky School Nutrition Association during its annual conference.

Through creative marketing, communication and interaction with staff and students, lunch services worked on getting participation levels up for school-offered breakfast and lunch, raising the participation rate to more than 80% from 60-70% previously.

Kaitlyn Blankendaal, food service director for Owensboro Public Schools, said NPES was the only school to win that award for the 2021-22 school year.

"We were very excited and very exhilarated," said MaryAnn Brown, food service manager at NPES. "I couldn't wait to call and tell our staff."

Part of increasing the participation rates for school meals included adding new menu options for students to try by asking them what sort of foods they liked.

"We would walk around the cafeteria and talk to the students that brought their lunch and told them they could still get items in the line even through they brought their lunch," Brown said.

Brown said a lot of the students bring Lunchables to eat during lunch, so the food services staff is creating versions of those items to entice students to eat lunch at school.

"They want to come up here," she said. "They just didn't know they could."

Blankendaal said students would also taste-test items to see if they liked the food.

"There was one student who didn't like anything, and his mother said he was super picky," Brown said. "He came up and tried new things. Now he eats the pizza and the hot dog meal. He tried an array of foods."

So far this school year, about 60% of students are participating in breakfast and about 80% are participating in lunch. Brown said it's not unusual for breakfast numbers to be lower than lunch.

Some of the new breakfast items added to the NPES menu include a English muffin breakfast sandwich, mini cinnamon rolls, chocolate Long Johns and croissant sandwiches, as well as new flavors for existing items.

New lunch items include pudding, slushies, more and new chicken items, more pizza options and pasta bakes.

Blankendaal said the number of students participating in school meals is lower at the beginning of the year and will gradually increase.

"Our team, staff and teachers here are incredible," Brown said. "The teachers are a big part of this as well. They encourage the students to come up here and talk to us and see what we have."

NPES is continuing its goal of increasing participation into the 2022-23 school year.

"We're super proud of the team," Blankendaal said, "and we're going to try to win again."

OPS is a Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school district. CEP schools are able to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students, regardless of income, through the USDA.