At Mandan Public Schools, we are fortunate to have dedicated individuals in every building who contribute to student success in meaningful ways—often without ever stepping into a classroom.

These essential team members are part of our Nutrition Services staff. Each day, they work diligently to support student health, focus, and academic achievement by providing well-balanced, nutritious meals.

On a monthly basis, our kitchen staff prepares and serves approximately 45,000 lunches and nearly 15,000 breakfasts to students across the district. Their efforts directly support learning, as research and experience show that well-nourished students are more engaged, perform better academically, and are better prepared to learn.

By offering healthy food choices, we help students develop lifelong habits that promote overall wellness. We are proud of our Nutrition Services team and the vital role they play in creating a foundation for student success—one meal at a time.

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) sought to increase the availability of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat fluid milk in school meals, and reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat to meet the nutritional needs of school children within their calorie requirements.  The intent was to provide nutrient-dense meals (high in nutrients and low in calories) that better meet the dietary needs of school children and protect their health.  The Act sought to improve lunches and breakfasts by requiring schools to adhere to some strict guidelines.  Examples of some of those guidelines are:

• Offer fruits and vegetables as two separate meal components
• Offer fruit daily at breakfast and lunch
• Offer vegetables daily at lunch including specific vegetable subgroups weekly
• Offer whole grains: half of whole grains would be whole-grain rich
• Offer meals that meet specific calorie ranges for each age/grade group to ensure proper portion size
• Reduce the sodium content of meals
• Prepare meals using food products that contain zero grams of trans fat
• Require students to select a fruit or vegetable as part of the reimbursable meal
• Require menus to adhere to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  Food on school menus must contain 30% calories from fat, less than 10% of calories from saturated fat, at least 1/3 of the RDA for key nutrients like calories, protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A and C.

We understand that not every child has the same preference for food, and we do have options in place to accommodate that.  In Elementary school, children are allowed to have a choice between different kinds of fresh fruit, canned fruit, fresh vegetables and hot vegetables each day.  They have their choice of a hot entrée or a grab n’ go meal.  Each of these choices meets the USDA nutrition standards we must follow.

We are required to offer five food groups at each meal.  If they prefer, students only must choose any of three to five food group items.  One requirement is that they must choose fruit or a vegetable.

We do our best to ensure that each student receives the meal of their choice.  If for any reason, a child cannot have their preferred choice, they are offered an alternative meal choice.  If one food group item is no longer available, (including their choice of the main entrée, another main entrée will be offered) the child is offered an alternative item.  In all cases, children will be offered the appropriate items to fulfill the nutritional requirements.

Good nutrition is key to the optimal growth and development of children.  Our nutrition staff strives each day to provide you children with tasty, healthy meals and because of this, we do not allow any outside food from other “restaurants” to be brought into our school cafeterias.  We thank you for your continued support and participation in the matter.

Mandan is full of amazing children and families.  We are honored to help them learn and grow.  We will continue to do our best to provide them with the nutrition they need to be the best people they can be.

To find more information about required nutritional standards and Mandan’s Nutrition Services Department, visit the Mandan Public School District website at www.mandan.k12.nd.us. Click Departments and Child Nutrition.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Jewel Meyer

Nutrition Services Director

751-6500 or jewel.meyer@msd1.org

Thank you from Mandan Public Schools Nutrition Services. We look forward to serving your children this school year!

Sincerely,

Jewel Meyer

Nutrition Services Director