Nutrition

Issaquah School District's Food Service Director Eric Stover has made nutritional improvements to the student lunch program over the past several months.

In elementary schools those improvements include:

• Adding two daily vegetarian entree options:
  1. Yogurt, muffin, string cheese, milk, fresh fruits/vegetables of the day, and dessert.
  2. A baked potato from a potato bar served with milk and dessert.
• Adding salad bars that include at least two fresh fruits, two fresh vegetables, tossed salad with dressing, a canned fruit, and other items such as pasta or potato salad, hard boiled eggs, dried fruits, and sunflower seeds.
• Eliminating sales of all snack items.

Highlights of improvements made at the secondary level include:

• Eliminating all oversized cookies and baked goods.
• Limiting all ala carte items(with the exception of pizza) to 250 calories or less per serving.
• Eliminating all sugary drinks and offering only water, vitamin water, 100% juice drinks and Gatorade.
• Eliminating the large size chocolate milks which were very popular but contain over 400 calories.
• Selling only multi-grain, baked, and reduced fat chips.
• Offering what has become a very popular "Grab and Go" salad option daily including Chef, Sante Fe, Sesame Noodle and Chicken Caesar salads.
• Adding deli sandwiches daily.
• Offering salad and finishing bars where students can help themselves to unlimited amounts of fruits, vegetables, and salad.
• Baking rolls with a combination of whole wheat and white flour instead of just white flour.
• Serving hamburger buns made from whole wheat instead of white flour.