When only seven percent of kids are eating enough vegetables for optimum nutrition, you know it’s time to find sustainable solutions to improve eating habits. It’s a serious situation, with the CDC reporting that 60 percent of children don’t eat enough fruit to meet daily recommendations and 93 percent of children aren’t eating enough vegetables.

More salad bars = more vegetable consumption

Getting kids to select and enjoy nourishing foods is a challenge for everyone, but it’s an especially complex issue for food service directors at educational institutions. Many of them are finding an answer in salad bars, a traditional restaurant and higher education offering that’s increasingly making its way into schools at all levels.

According to a Pew Charitable Trusts study, school nutrition directors have reported that 64 percent of students ate more fruits and vegetables when offered a salad bar compared to 33 percent who ate the same amount.

Hey kids, try this

Kids may be more willing to try a taste of a new food if they have the control over when and how they’ll be eating it, so salad bars make sense as a vehicle for introducing new flavors and ingredients. With the ability to make their own choices and personalize their plates, students seem to be more receptive to the idea of eating more fruits and vegetables.

Salad bars also offer many opportunities for educational and community reinforcement. Local produce can be featured on the bar, and local producers can be encouraged to make student visits. For schools with community gardens on campus, gardeners can be given the opportunity to highlight some of their harvest on the salad bar.

Increased participation

According to the Chef Ann Foundation, an organization that helps schools take action so that every child has daily access to fresh, healthy food, “salad bars are one of the best initial changes a school district can make to show their community they’re making positive changes in their food program.” The foundation’s most recent evaluation showed that 68 percent of schools implementing salad bars saw an increase in average daily participation.

T. Marzetti tip

Marzetti^® Simply Dressed^® clean label dressings are an increasingly popular salad bar option. They’re made without high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors or gluten and are available in gallons, 32 oz. bottles and single-serve packets and cups.

Read more

Salad Bars & Healthy Eating
Why Should Schools Have Salad Bars?

Recipes

Here are our favorite salad recipes to try at your operation

What can you learn about salad bars from a culinary professional whose university has 30 eating locations and does 47,000 transactions a day? Quite a lot, it turns out. On Your Plate recently chatted with Lesa Holford, Corporate Executive Chef at The Ohio State University to find out more about her operation.

With a campus of more than 66,000 students and six salad bars on campus, Holford knows a thing or two about ways to keep a noncommercial population coming back for more, every day. She shared these three top tips for ways to build sales and ensure satisfaction.

1.    Some like it hot

“We just added a hot bar as part of the existing salad bar in our Union Market this semester, and it’s increased sales dramatically,” Holford says. “We made one bar into two lines and put a hot bar in the middle.” She says that students love the Whole Foods-like model, and seem to enjoy having hot and cold foods on their plate. “They might put a piece of fried chicken on top of a fresh green salad, or add a tiny dab of mac and cheese on the edge of their plate,” she explains.

2.    Compose the bar

Salad bars don’t have to just be a bunch of segmented ingredients. OSU’s operation has also experienced success with including composed salads on the salad bar. “We do a curried cauliflower salad with cashews and peas; roasted winter squash with kale and pepitas and a marinated beet salad, made with cooked beets,” Holford says.

3.    Roam the world

The hot bar has allowed her operation to include even more globally inspired offerings, including Indian food and a weekly Asian cuisine themed day. Fusion is still a major trend. “People want to see different cultural influences in their food, which allows us as chefs to be more creative in our mash-ups. We do a vegan General Tso’s chicken, made with seitan, and it’s been really popular,” she says. “People who might not order an entire vegan entrée have been trying it, and they love it.”

T. Marzetti tip

Marzetti^® Simply Dressed^® clean label dressings are made without high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors or gluten and are available in gallons, 32 oz. bottles and single-serve packets and cups.

Read more

Building a Better Salad Bar

Recipes

Here are our favorite salad recipes to try at your operation: