August 17, 2011

Greeley Schools Build a Better Burrito

The New York Times reports on how public schools in Greeley are going to back to making their own cafeteria food for better nutrition:
Consider the bean burrito: last year, in arriving from the factory wrapped in cellophane, each one had more than 35 ingredients, including things like potassium citrate and zinc oxide. This year: 12, including real cheddar cheese. Italian salad dressing went from 19 ingredients to 9, with sodium reduced by almost three-fourths and sugar — the fourth ingredient in the factory blend — eliminated entirely. . . . .

“The biggest myth is that it costs more money,” said Kate Adamick, a food consultant based in New York and co-founder of Cook for America. She said federal reimbursement rules could actually give poorer school systems some advantages in shifting back to scratch, especially for meat, which many districts buy with deep discounts. Cooking the meat themselves, rather than paying a processor, can drastically reduce total costs, she said.
They promise the kiddies their familiar bright yellow mac-and-cheese, but colored with tumeric instead of some industrial chemical.

2 comments:

Kelley said...

I wonder. Could we improve the nutritional value of the Corn dogs that D70 serves for breakfast? Or maybe we should find alternatives to the whole corn dogs for breakfast concept.

Janeen said...

I make a big batch of homemade freezer burritos every other month or so. Homemade not fried refried beans, spicy meat, roasted peppers, sweet corn, cheese and salsa loaded into grilled tortillas.

I haven't done the math, but I don't think they cost much more than a buck a piece and not only are they a convenient thing to have around, they're a lot healthier and tastier than the crappy ones at the gas station.