Child Nutrition

Eden Prairie Schools Child Nutrition is in a class of its own with its full-service production bakery housed at Eden Prairie High School. We are the only school district in Minnesota with a dedicated, central bakery that serves all of our schools. That means we do not need to add preservatives! Breads, buns and baked goods are made fresh daily. We're currently experimenting to prepare homemade baked goods that do not contain gluten. 

Fresh-baked items include: Hamburger buns, hot dog buns, submarine sandwich buns, tea biscuits, bread loaves, French bread, focaccia, bread bowls, cookies, fruit crisps, breakfast baked items and homemade granola.

Our gluten-sensitive products include pound cake and a chocolate chip cookie currently being tested at the high school. We are developing our own blend of gluten-free flour made from ingredients such as rice flour, potato starch and tapioca flour. People with gluten allergies should know that our gluten-sensitive products are made on the same equipment as our regular baked goods. 

Eden Prairie Schools works with local farms and vendors to source many of the foods that we serve. This is part of our meal planning and we're always looking for more ways to bring fresh foods to our tables.

Our fruit and vegetable suppliers source local produce as much as possible. We also work directly with growers and farmers for our apples and cheese: 

• Whole apples come from Bayfield Farm and Orchard, Wisconsin
• Pre-packaged apples are from Richland Hills Farms, Wisconsin
• Cheese is from Bongards Premium Cheese, Wisconsin 

Child Nutrition staff in the production kitchen at Eden Prairie High School cook from scratch each day our soups, sauces and several entrées. Using our cook and chill system, these are packaged and refrigerated for next-day delivery to each of our district schools. Here's what's made fresh when it's served in school:

• All soups served in Eden Prairie Schools
• Spaghetti sauce (our most popular menu item; we hand-make more than 12,000 gallons of sauce annually)
• Sloppy Joe 
• Taco meat (beef)
• Grilled cheese sandwiches
• Turkey gravy
• Ranch salad dressing

Eden Prairie Schools is one of the few school districts in the nation to prepare our own rotisserie chicken on two large rotisserie ovens in our production kitchen. Child Nutrition staff prepare fresh chicken for same-day serving. We control the seasonings and leave out additives by overseeing each step of the rotisserie cooking process. 

School Meals

Eden Prairie Schools’ Food Service offers well-balanced, healthy meals meeting federal nutrition standards. A few facts about school meals:

• No more than 30% of calories come from fat, less than 10% from saturated fat.
• Meals provide 1/3 of Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium.
• Age-appropriate portion sizes.
• Fruits/vegetables are offered every day.
• Salad bars provide locally sourced produce when available.
• Breads baked daily in the full bakery at the EPHS.

School Nutrition programs are working to make healthy meals kid-friendly by:

• Making homemade soups and sauces and some dressings in our central kitchen.
• Testing items to get student views on what we are serving or thinking about serving.
• Reformulating student favorites to make them more healthy, such as serving pizza on whole grain bread with low-sodium sauce and low-fat cheese.
• Using oat bran in all our bread recipes to make them a whole grain product.
• Incorporating culturally appropriate foods to meet the tastes of our diverse student populations and provide alternative foods for students with dietary restrictions and allergies.

Food companies are responding to calls for more nutritious options by reformulating processed foods with healthier ingredients, less fat, less sodium, and less sugar. For example, pizzas are increasingly made with whole grain crusts, low-sodium sauce and reduced fat cheese; chicken nuggets use a whole grain breading and are baked rather than deep-fried; and french fries are often without trans fat and baked instead of fried. Many schools are now serving baked sweet potato fries.

Milk Choices
Eden Prairie Schools offers skim, 1%, and skim chocolate milk. According to the USDA, 70% of girls and 60% of boys (ages 6-11) do not consume the recommended daily amount of calcium. Experts agree that to ensure intake of calcium, vitamin D, protein and other nutrients important for growth and development, it is better for children and adolescents to drink flavored milk than to avoid milk all together which is why chocolate milk is offered as an option. Flavored milk delivers the same nutrient package as regular milk and 2005 Dietary Guidelines state that small amounts of sugars added to nutrient-dense foods, such as reduced-fat milk products, may enhance the taste, thus improving nutrient intake without contributing excessive calories.

Farm to School
Nationwide, farm to school programs connect schools with local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing health and nutrition education opportunities that will last a lifetime, and supporting local small farmers.

Our average Health Inspection score for school year 2017-18 was 97.05.  Every school's individual inspection report is posted in each kitchen.

Food and Nutrition Resources
The Minnesota Nutrition Council, Inc. and Midwest Dairy has developed a resource list of websites and books for use with consumer audiences. (The content of these sites is not controlled by the Eden Prairie School District.) Click on areas below for more detail:

• General Websites and Children Specific Websites
• Adult Nutrition Books
• Childrens' Nutrition Books
• Welcome to the dairy Farm
• Farm to School

• "Parasail with Pears"
  • Sept./Oct.
• "Get Hooked on Fish"
  • Nov./Dec.
• "Wild for Rice"
  • Jan./Feb.
• "Build Muscles with Milk"
  • Mar./Apr.
• "24 Carrot Eyesight"
  • May/June
     
• Farm to School 2019-20   Our promotions this year 

School district staff works to protect specific children from potential food allergies. 

Many children in the district have life threatening allergies to peanuts and tree nuts. Child nutrition staff will label manufactured food that have the peanut and tree nut warning at the elementary level.

It is important to note that many food items that are served including buns, bread, cookies and cakes are made in our school district bakery. Peanut butter sandwiches are also made at each school on a regular basis.

Food service staff clean and sanitize all items that have any potential for cross contamination with peanut or tree nut products. This process is an effort to prevent any potential risk for our students with these life threatening allergies.

Families may need to provide lunch from home if this slight possibility is a concern for their student.

Contact Us

Recycling Food Waste Saves District Money

The process for recycling and trash removal is as follows: All our trash and recycling, after we sort it, is taken to a sorting station in Minneapolis where it is sorted again. The trash is burned in an incinerator and the energy is used to heat Target Field and many office building in the Minneapolis area. Learn more about how it works! 

Waste Management System

The system to manage waste at Eden Prairie Schools consists of garbage, cardboard recycling, food and beverage container recycling (cans, glass, plastics), food donation, and food waste recycling by feeding it to livestock. At the schools, compactors and dumpsters are dedicated to garbage; loose cardboard is baled for recycling; food and beverage containers (cans, glass, plastic) are collected in barrels for recycling; edible excess food is set aside for food donation; and food waste is collected in barrels for livestock feeding.

Livestock Feeding Program

Eden Prairie Schools uses Barthold Farms, a network of family farms that recycle food waste from commercial waste generators in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The farms recycle food waste by cooking it and feeding it to hogs. 

Food waste is generated in two areas of the school district's food service operation:

• At the Nutrition Center located in the Eden Prairie High School where food for district-wide meals are prepared, cooked, chilled and temporarily stored before delivery to all district schools.
• At the cafeteria in each school where food is prepared and meals are served to students and staff.

The district's livestock feeding program is integrated into the Nutrition Center's food service operation at Eden Prairie High School:

•  Barthold Farms provides the high school with food waste collection barrels to collect food waste for recycling. These barrels have a capacity of 32 gallons and have lids and wheels. Full and empty collection barrels are temporarily stored inside the shipping and receiving area next to the high school's loading dock.
• Each weekday morning the Nutrition Center fills "cold carts" with chilled and packaged food cooked the previous day. Cold carts keep the food cold as it is being delivered to schools on two district-owned delivery trucks. When the cold carts arrive at the schools, food service employees heat and serve the food for lunch.
• During the lunch periods, food waste is separated into collection barrels by students and staff in the school cafeterias. Full collection barrels are temporarily staged at the school loading docks.
• After lunch has been served, empty cold carts and full food waste collection barrels are picked up at the schools and transported back to the high school. Empty cold carts are returned to the Nutrition Center and full food waste collection barrels are consolidated at the high school's loading dock.
• Barthold Farms picks up full collection barrels five days a week at the high school.

Quantity Diverted

Eden Prairie Schools diverts an average of 10-15 tons of food waste per month to livestock feeding.

The Economics

By managing the food waste generated separately from its garbage stream, Eden Prairie Schools saves on its trash hauling and disposal costs.

Other Benefits

In addition to cost savings, Eden Prairie Schools has experienced other benefits because the food waste it generates is managed separately from its garbage stream:

• Improved workers safety because heavy garbage bags no longer need to be lifted into garbage dumpsters.
• Improved labor efficiencies because of fewer employee trips to empty garbage into compactors and dumpsters.
• Increased cleanliness of operations due to elimination of liquid waste from the garbage stream.
• Reduction in odor due to elimination of food waste from the garbage stream.
• Reduction in the use and maintenance of in-sink garbage disposals.
• Improved inventory management because food waste is separate and more visible to food service employees.

All school districts that participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs are required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (Act) to have a wellness policy that includes standards and nutrition guidelines for foods and beverages made available to students on campus during the school day, as well as, specific goals for nutrition promotion and education, physical activity, and other school-based activities that to promote student wellness. The Act requires the involvement of parents, students, representatives of the school food authority, teachers of physical education, school health professionals, the school board, school administrators, and the public in the development, implementation, and periodic review and update of the wellness policy.

The district's wellness policy (533) can be viewed under District Policies in the 500 series.

Wellness Nutrition Summary Wellness Summary

Child Nutrition Presentation-Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act-Breakfast and lunch meal pattern requirements.

The Wellness Advisory Committee partnering with administration and Hennepin County Public Health to increase the use of Mindfulness and Movement in our schools. Mindfulness and Movement Summary 

Committee Agendas and Meeting Minutes

• February 18, 2020 Wellness Meeting Minutes
• November 12, 2019 Wellness Meeting Minutes
• November 12, 2019 Agenda
• September 17, 2019 Wellness Meeting Minutes
• September 17, 2019 Agenda
• May 14, 2019 Agenda
• May 14, 2019 Wellness Meeting Minutes 
• April 18, 2017 Agenda
• April 24, 2018 Wellness Meeting Minutes
• April 24, 2018 Agenda
• May 16, 2017 Agenda
• May 16, 2017 Minutes Wellness Meeting
• October 17, 2017 Agenda
• October 17, 2017 Minutes Wellness Meeting
• November 14, 2017 Agenda
• November 14, 2017 Minutes Wellness Meeting
• January 9,2018 Agenda
• January 9, 2018 Minutes Wellness Meeting
• March 13, 2018 Agenda
• March 13, 2018 Minutes Wellness Meeting
• May 8, 2018 Agenda
• May 8, 2018 Minutes Wellness Meeting
• September Agenda Wellness Meeting
• September 18,2018 Wellness Mtg Minutes
• November Agenda 2018
• November 13, 2018 Minutes Wellness Meeting