Introducing New Menu Items to School Lunch

As part of Farm to School Month’s “Leaf it to Spinach,” my goal has been to do weekly spinach taste tests in the Elementary school.

Originally I had planned was to do a bunch of different recipes to get the interest of the students. I first wanted to do a raw spinach taste test, then spinach pesto, and warm them up to a green smoothie.

Instead, I was inspired by Bexx, a FoodCorps Service Member at the Athens Land Trust, who uses an avocado wrap recipe in cooking labs with high school students. I adapted the recipe into a simpler spinach and hummus wrap for the elementary age.

I thought wraps would be a great item for students to try because they fun to eat, are a popular item at cafes and restaurants, and can be easily made at home.

I reached out to the school’s manager and asked for items they already use and have on hand - whole wheat tortilla, spinach, and hummus.

The staff was interested in what I was doing and why. I explained it was Farm to School Month and that I wanted the students to get excited about spinach. We began having conversations about the changes that could be made to the recipe, what the students think of spinach and why, and made sure to offer each employee a sample.

That’s when I realized that my spinach hummus wrap could easily be implemented as a new school lunch item. The ingredients were already commonly used in the cafeteria (I never had a problem obtaining the ingredients), the staff was on board, and the simple recipe could be very easily improved or adapted to reach requirements.

After my third taste test, the cafeteria manager surprised me by saying that “we really should make a spinach hummus meal while it is still fresh in the kids’ minds.”

YES !!

The spinach wrap was a huge success among the students as well, with around a 50% satisfaction rate - not too bad from 4-7 year olds! The students were used to spinach in their mixed salads at lunch, but most had never tried hummus before. The greatest complaint was that the “sauce was disgusting” and that I should use ranch instead… we’ll see how that changes in a few months.