School meals are the healthy choice!

Superintendent Jane K. Berenz is pictured having a healthy lunch with Greenleaf Elementary third-grader Katie Percival September 21. Employees in the district's Food and Nutrition Services Department have increased the nutritional value of school meals this year by offering more fresh fruits and vegetables, foods with fewer calories, less fat and less sodium, leaner proteins, more whole grains, and skim and 1 percent milk.

The 20,000 school lunches served each day in District 196 follow the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutritional guidelines for the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2012. Students are encouraged to take two servings of fruits, two servings of vegetables, one entrée (protein and grain) and a carton of skim or 1 percent milk.

For school breakfast and lunch menus, go to the Food and Nutrition Services Department homepage.