SAN ANTONIO — Getting kids to eat is one thing. Getting them to like their food is another challenge. Truthfully, recess is tops at Agnus Cotton Academy. Lunch is fun, too. It’s where 476 students get a breather from class and socialize with their friends over a strategic menu.
“We’re offering food children might be familiar with, but they are much healthier than you would find at a grocery store and restaurants,” Jenny Arredondo said.
Arredondo is the Senior Executive Director of Childhood Nutrition for the San Antonio Independent School District. She oversees a food system that serves 90,000 meals daily for 85 to 90 sites.
"It’s not just sitting around and deciding, 'I think we’re going to serve this today,'" she said. “Everything is pre-planned and well planned.”
All food must meet federal guidelines, right down to the color. The menus vary throughout the district. Their toughest customers are high school students. Arredondo said they survey and offer taste testing to make sure they are delivering a pleasing product to the students.
Neighborhood Eats asked 4th-7th graders at Cotton Academy their perspective on school lunch. Iliana Marrero, Vivian Barrera, Oranda Brieto, George Becerra and Daniel Cordova agreed to lend their opinions and appetites.
Ideally, the lion’s share of these young tasters would prefer desserts for their dream lunch.
“Ice cream sundae, milk shake, chocolate milk, candy,” Barrera said.
The sweet dreams stopped with Marrero.
“Egg and cheese omelet,” she said. “That sounds good. “That sounds good.”
Principal Rawan Hammoudeh said she encourages her pre-K through 8th graders to express their opinions on what’s right and wrong at school.
“They’ve started to do that a lot,” she said.
Neighborhood Eats wanted their review of cafeteria favorite tacos with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, black beans, rice, fruit, pears with whipped cream and milk.
Only one student tried the newly added black beans. The nutrition staff wasn’t sure they’d go over well in the Dragon’s Den. The students understood their daily offerings scale toward balanced.
“So, like not too healthy and not too salad,” Marrero said. “Not too healthy-healthy.”
Brieto said their food is not junk food.
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, here are their marks for the meal and recommendation for improvement:
- Marrero: 9.5 Meal Improvement: Add dessert.
- Barrera: 9 Meal Improvement: Add dessert.
- Brieto: 10 Meal Improvement: Add dessert.
- Becerra: 8 Meal Improvement: More tomatoes.
- Cordova: 10 Meal Improvement: Add doughnuts.
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