Challenging Times (and how we’re handling them)
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that supply chains have been disrupted by the ongoing pandemic. This issue is affecting school nutrition in a profound way. Menus, which previously were planned month(s) in advance are being planned a week out and still substitutions are commonplace. Manufacturers are paring down their items because of labor shortages and increases in manufacturing costs. The cost of some raw ingredients has nearly tripled.
Given the sheer scope of the [...]
Meals for Senior Citizens
When schools across California closed their physical doors and pivoted to distance learning last March, like many food service operations, SNP was forced to keep up with the rapid onslaught of changing information and circumstances while keeping our students fed. An integral part of that meant determining the safest and most efficient way to continue to prepare as well as distribute meals to our school communities. We are extremely proud of this work and all that we continue to do. As [...]
Holiday Gratitude by Deb Glasser, MS, RD
Winter holidays are here and it’s cold out (53 to be exact!). Over a bowl of delicious homemade minestrone soup that was just whipped up in our kitchen by Chef Allen, I sat and compiled the “What are you thankful for?” emails and post it notes that I distributed to the SNP team over the last few weeks.
There is overwhelming gratitude [...]
SNP FOCUS ON FARM BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
SNP is launching an exciting nutrition event for the 2019-2020 school year, theSNP Farm Stand. The Farm Stand is a platform for nutrition education and an opportunity to sample seasonal produce with a spotlight on spinach (Eat More Greens always!) and berries (because they’re a perfect food). On the day of the event, a farm stand table is set up with assorted produce for [...]
FLEXIBILITY FOR THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
Game Grain Changer
The USDA has granted flexibility to schools for the 2019-2020 school year for whole grains, flavored low fat milk and sodium. Pulling back the reigns was purportedly done to help schools overcome the challenges that the HHFKA Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act (2010) initially presented. Among those challenges, school lunch providers expressed their concerns over decreased student participation, meeting targets [...]
WORKING TOGETHER BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
As part of the Culinary Institute of America’s (CIA) Healthy Kids Collaborative, SNP partnered with Northarvest Bean Grower Association to create school recipes using dried and canned beans.
Students had the opportunity to sample our black bean hummus with green pepper triangles, sweet potato and red kidney bean chili, and chicken chili verde with Great Northern white beans. The chicken chili verde knocked [...]
ASSEMBLY BILL 1871: MEALS FOR ALL CA CHARTER STUDENTS, BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
California is now the world’s fifth largest economy. Despite this concentration of wealth, we have the highest child poverty rate in the nation. In many impoverished neighborhoods, there’s been significant effort to change public education in hopes of empowering and elevating the community. California’s Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorized charter schools as part of the state’s public education, establishing their intention to “provide opportunities” and “increase pupil [...]
NATIONAL NUTRITION MONTH IS HERE! BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
March is National Nutrition Month and this year is different in that the month is being honored as its own theme. Going along with this, I’m hoping to bring some nutrition awareness to the impact of daily diet.
Q: What small manageable daily changes can I make to yield big results over time?
Part 1: Make good choices.
Do you religiously pour 2 or more packets of sugar in your coffee in [...]
TAIPEI AMERICAN SCHOOL, TAIPEI, TAIWAN BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
SNP has been working with the Taipei American School in Taipei, Taiwan to improve their food service operation. President Emily Burson and Jason Keegan, VP [...]
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH HUMMUS, YES, PLEASE, BY DEB GLASSER, M.S., R.D
Chocolate chip cookie dough hummus.
You are saying to yourself one of two things: a) “Definitely YESSSS! That sounds amazing.” or b) “Just no.”
I am here to convince you category b, nay sayers that you are WRONG. Chocolate chip cookie dough hummus is divine. Our planet will thank you too.
Last week SNP conducted a mini workshop and hosted chefs from Forward Food, [...]
WALNUTS AND SNP’S EFFORT TO INCREASE PLANT BASED PROTEINS IN SCHOOL MEALS BY DEB GLASSER, M.S., R.D.
SNP develops recipes and new items throughout the school year. I’ve written about our process here. Often in R&D, we are flavor driven, exploring ways to menu trending cuisines or flavor profiles.
Sometimes we are ingredient driven. Such is the case with walnuts. SNP [...]
ROCKIN’ RAINBOW SALAD
Nutrition events are an integral part of what we do at SNP.
While the events may differ, the goal is always the same: bring exposure and awareness to delicious vegetables and get our students to TRY them.
In years past, in addition to our Alphabet Produce Train, we’ve brought SNP’s Epic Green Smoothie and Epic Green Hummus to students throughout Southern California.
This year, we’ve delveloped [...]
BACK TO SCHOOL
Summer is over (insert tear drop sad face emoji here!).
While there’s no sign that our hot weather is going anywhere, the long lazy hours at the beach, fun days at water parks, and outrageous county fair food consumption have turned into distant memories just in time for that first school bell to ring. Let’s kiss the relaxed emotional state of mind that summer brings [...]
CHOCOLATE MILK? OR NOT? BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
What happens when schools stop serving chocolate milk in the cafeteria?
Will students stop drinking milk altogether or will they accept the change, albeit gradually, and eventually make the shift to drinking plain (white) milk?
These were some of the questions researchers tackled in Baltimore, Maryland as they looked closely at the impact of eliminating chocolate milk from cafeterias at several schools throughout the city. The results [...]
HEY, SUNSHINE
The end of the school year is here. On one hand it’s…Helloooo summer! On the other hand, the finality and closure make me contemplative. Perhaps because it’s tangible evidence that my own children are growing and maturing (slow down, please). Perhaps its somber because friends and colleagues take the natural break as an opportunity to move on, change schools [...]
YAY FOR MAY!
May’s here and that’s exciting for so many reasons:
May flowers (thank you April showers), Mother’s Day (keep reading for awesome gift giveaway info!), and of course drumroll please…our cookbook has officially been published and released.
We celebrated the launch of “A Chef Walks Into a Cafeteria…” last month by hosting a sensational group of bloggers, dietitians, media influencers, school administrators, and people who are doing [...]
EARTH DAY BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
April 22nd is Earth Day and I love any opportunity to celebrate our planet. With an abundance of accessible information, more people are aware of how their food and lifestyle choices impact the environment. What are we collectively doing about it? At SNP, students eat lunch on reusable trays instead of foam disposable ones. Our central kitchen is energy efficient and employees [...]
GO FURTHER WITH FOOD
March is National Nutrition Month, a month-long campaign focused on educating the public on the importance of informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. Initially conceived as National Nutrition Week in 1973, the week became a month-long campaign as interest in nutrition grew in the 80’s. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the professional organization for Registered [...]
PART 2: CHEWING THE FAT WITH CHEF JASON BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
DG: What’s the most challenging part of your job?
JK: Employees and retention, finding qualified people that enjoy what they’re doing. Also, navigating the NSLP and finding ingredients and developing recipes the kids will eat.
DG: Tell me something fun about your job.
JK: I have freedom to develop and execute my schedule, I get to move around and see the big picture, and [...]
CHEWING THE *BACON* FAT WITH CHEF JASON (PART 1) BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
Jason Keegan grew up a latch key kid who, by default, began cooking for himself and his sisters. After seven years at Bar Crudo and a stint at Beast and the Hare in San Francisco, he moved to LA to run one of SNP’s school kitchens. Fast forward six years. Jason, now SNP’s Culinary Operations Director oversees all outside operations (kitchens) [...]
A PIZZA MY MIND BY DEB GLASSER MS, RD
National Pizza Day is here, and for me (and subsequently my family) it’s just an excuse to eat more pizza.
About me: I love pizza.
I grew up in Chicago, spent several years in New York, and have lived in LA for over 20 years. Other than Italy, I’ve lived in, IMHO, the best pizza hubs in the world. For the record, eating Margherita pizza [...]
EAT MORE GREENS BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
SNP works hard to promote “Eat More Greens”. We wear it on our T-shirts, we incorporate greens into our menus, and we build several nutrition events around this mission (i.e. Epic Green Smoothie, Epic Green Hummus).
But Why? What’s so important about eating green vegetables?
Dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach, and arugula are bursting with healthful nutrients. Greens [...]
REFLECTION TIME: GOOD STUFF BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
It’s been an action-packed year, filled with all the events, emotions, triumphs, and tribulations one might expect given our current climate.
We completed our corporate video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uzkvLsySAkor at the top of our website) in hopes of giving both our current and potential clients, students, and their families a sense of what SNP’s mission is as well as providing a glimpse [...]
CHATTIN’ WITH CHEF LOUIS BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
Executive Sous Chef Louis Martinez spent hours upon hours watching Frugal Gourmet as a kid and running to his local library to scour cook books searching for recipes he could handle at age 8. A couple of decades later, he’s knee deep in creating and developing recipes for SNP and was instrumental in the production of SNP’s soon-to-be-released cookbook “A Chef Walks into A Cafeteria…”. I had an opportunity to tear him away from his kitchen duties and interview him. He’s [...]
EPIC GREEN HUMMUS BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
It’s nearly October (gasp!) and most of us have settled into the routine of the “new” school year: the early morning wakeups, homework schedules, and hustle and bustle of fall activity. Here at SNP, driver routes have been finalized, new items developed by our chefs are popping up on our menus, and nutrition special events are being scheduled. There are many things that set SNP apart from other school lunch caterers. Certainly, our food is always fresh, nutritious and delicious. Yes, [...]
BACK TO SCHOOL TOGETHER BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
Each year, sometime during the first week of August, the entire SNP team meets to review, revise, revitalize, and strategize for the upcoming school year. For many on the team, it’s also a chance to reconnect with friends after summer break and for others it’s the first chance to connect a face to a name. When we convene, sometimes, an employee is recognized for reaching a milestone employment anniversary. That happened a few weeks ago except it wasn’t just one employee, [...]
END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR PROSE
The 2017 school year reaches a close And with that comes this reflective prose We are grateful as ever for our students and schools Working diligently to comply with the Smart Snacks rules Our fantastic state of the art kitchen was put to the test Producing new menu items which were met with success Nachos, calzones, and chicken pot pie Cuban sandwiches, turkey meatloaf, and some innovative sides The Alphabet Produce Train visited some sites While others sampled Green Smoothies to their delight The SNP video made its debut Showcasing the [...]
USDA’S COMMITMENT TO SCHOOL MEALS
Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture announced yesterday in a memo titled USDA Commitment to School Meals that the USDA would offer some flexibility to schools across the nation who have “worked diligently to overcome operational challenges”. Meant to assist schools who participate in the NSLP, the proclamation of this easement in menu planning intends to help with providing “nutritious and appealing meals and encourage student participation in the meal programs”. Mainly, USDA will begin the regulatory process of offering schools additional options to serving [...]
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
The SNP team covets the relationships we have with our schools’ administrators, teachers, students, and their parents. We work hard to provide students with fresh, delicious, compliant meals are regularly asked about both our processes and the parameters of the National School Lunch Program.
We thought it woule be beneficial (and fun!) to provide our clients with an informative (and fun!) video [...]
MENU PLANNING CYCLE
We are often asked about our menu planning process. How do we manage to provide our students with healthy, innovative, and delicious school menus? It’s a cyclical process that involves careful planning, execution, evaluation, & modification.
First, we plan
SNP’s combination of culinary expertise and nutrition knowledge is used to create cycle menus that incorporate numerous exciting flavors. Our chefs take into consideration [...]
RECONNECTING IN THE NEW YEAR!
Take a look at SNP’s January menus and you might notice new items making an appearance. January’s weather calls for comfort food and we’ve created several fantastic lunches to keep our students cozy and warm during these “cold” winter months. My three favorites (in no particular order):
Turkey Meatloaf, made from scratch, served with mashed potatoes and gravy. A healthier take on [...]
HOLIDAY TIME
Holiday Traditions
We are grateful for the support and dedication of our clients and vendors. Each year SNP puts together a holiday gift to express our appreciation. In past years, we’ve done, cookies, cakes, soup mixes, and this year we made granola. Here’s the recipe and a glimpse of Chef Louis crafting our SNP Holiday Granola (which is so amazing, it just [...]
MAGNIFICENT MEATLESS MENU BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
Over the summer my daughter met and fell in love with a cow. In that moment, she swore off eating beef “forever”. I gave it a month. Well, it is November and she has yet to go back on the promise she made to herself. While the rest of us cut into juicy rib-eyes, she opts instead for a turkey burger or grilled chicken breast. I applaud and support her ethical convictions and tell her frequently. Many of the students we [...]
BACK TO SCHOOL! BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
There’s no tiptoeing into the school year.
It’s like going for a swim in the Pacific Ocean: hold your breath, close your eyes, and dive in.
Once you catch your breath and wipe the salt water from your eyes, there’s that wonderful moment that hits you. You take it all in and remember how delightful it is to just float in [...]
IT’S HERE! BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
It’s here! We’ve been waiting with baited breath to tell everyone our little secret. Okay, it’s not “little”. It’s actually a 10,000 square foot secret and houses our new command center including a state-of-the-art kitchen facility and our corporate offices. And we are excited to put it to work. The last nine months have been spent transforming an empty shell of a warehouse into a modern commissary kitchen with the capacity to produce thirty thousand meals per day and to service schools [...]
ALL ABOARD! BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
The Alphabet Produce Train has officially pulled out of the station and the SNP train crew is elated! We have worked tirelessly to produce this year’s event, designing and engineering an old fashion steam engine replica complete with fruit and vegetable details AND creating a menu that highlights 26 amazing fruits and vegetables. The Alphabet Produce Train (APT), SNP’s [...]
NEW DIETARY GUIDELINES AND THE LUNCH TRAY BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
The rain is here (aloha, El Nino) and so are the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines. Released every five years, the Guidelines help shape what Americans eat (or at least are “supposed” to eat) over the next five years by informing “the development of Federal food, nutrition, and health policies and programs”. The Guidelines are particularly important to the school nutrition community because they will [...]
HOLIDAY MUSINGS BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
With only a few weeks left of 2015 (yikes!) the SNP chefs and crew are busy preparing holiday feasts for the students, faculty, and administration at our schools. Amidst the hustle and bustle of it all I had the chance to sneak into the kitchens and ask our staff to take a moment and reflect on what the holidays look like, feel like, [...]
WHEN A CHILL IN THE AIR CALLS FOR CHILI…BY DEB GLASSER, MS, RD
Halloween has come and gone and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. There’s a chill in the air and our students are “bundled up” as they make their way to school (Note: as a girl who spent the first 17 years of my life in Chicago, I feel compelled to use quotes around bundled up-we are in Southern California after all). Venture into any of the SNP kitchens and the season is reflected in our menus. At many of our [...]
Green Smoothie Smiles by Deb Glasser, MS, RD
Procuring the talents of Executive Sous Chef Luis and our fantastic kitchen staff, SNP has created, prepared and served our signature “Epic Green Smoothie” to over 4000 students since the start of this school year. That’s right. 4000 students have sipped their greens…and liked them!
Staying true to the SNP mission of providing nutritious and delicious food to our students, we embarked [...]
What I Did on my Summer Vacation By Deb Glasser, MS, RD
First day of school? Cue the requisite “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” project. For my second grader, this took the shape of a paper cut out of over-sized sunglasses with instruction to write a favorite summer experience on each lens. She wrote of our family trip to the Midwest to see grandparents (chock-full of fireflies and thunderstorms-both of which are anomalies to my California girls) and on the other lens, she gushed about her experience at science camp [...]
A Pinch of Scratch is a Dash of Home by Sarah Lippman, Dietetic Intern
Did you hear that School Nutrition Plus is serving up meals cooked from scratch? We are very excited about it, and have found that scratch cooking is highly valuable in our mission to provide healthy, delicious, and nutritious meals for our students. Some students are even saying that the food we serve “tastes like home.” Scratch cooking provides endless benefits in the form of a home cooked experience. For starters, our students are constantly introduced to new foods and flavor profiles Chef Louis: [...]
All Aboard the Alphabet Produce Train
La Canada Elementary Schools and SNP just finished their annual Alphabet Produce Train salad bar event featuring vegetables and fruit from every letter of the alphabet. The students were excited to participate and the day was a resounding success. “Can we do this again tomorrow?” asked a 5th grader.
First things first, and because this is by far the most popular FAQ…
Q: “What’s [...]