Boston Public Schools promote healthy, fresh meals at annual conference

BOSTON - Thousands of school food service professionals are in Boston this weekend for the School Nutrition Association's annual national conference hosted by Boston Public Schools.

BPS serving fresh and local meals to students

More than 7,000 school food service professionals from across the country came to Boston to learn about best practices taking place at BPS, which converted from vending meal service to providing fresh, local, and culturally relevant school meals cooked on-site across the district. Boston students will have the opportunity to eat bone-in chicken thighs, chickpeas and fresh salads as part of the BPS Eats program.

"The foods we are serving to our kids sends a message to them, and the message Boston Public Schools wants to send is you are important, you are valued, you are seen, and we are doing that by serving our kids fresh made food that's healthy and procured from our local farms and vendors," said BPS Food and Nutrition Executive Director Anneliese Tanner.

Learning from one another

Administrators and cafeteria managers are here to learn from one another so they can improve school food in the country with features like self-serve salad bars.

Hollie Best came up from West Virginia, where she oversees 24 schools and 11,000 students. "I am in the process of building three new schools for my county as well as renovating a school, so my idea was to come into Boston city school districts, where you all have done a lot of renovations in your kitchens, to see what you were doing and how you were being successful, so I can take pictures back to me."

BPS Assistant Culinary Director Andrew Urbanetti said the feedback from students and teachers has been positive.

"Understanding how far we've come in creating these scratch kitchens at so many schools across the district, with a district that is so diverse and full of so many different cultures, that this is possible," said Urbanetti. School officials said healthy meals help kids remain focused inside the classroom.

"I think the kids are super excited to have fresh meals and to be able to choose what goes on their plate and to be able to load their plate up with local produce," said Tanner.