DENVER — Once the butt of some bad jokes, school meals are receiving a makeover at George Washington High School and across Denver Public Schools (DPS).
With a focus on nutritional quality and student satisfaction, the district's Food and Health Council is pushing efforts to create a better dining experience for all students.
Since the beginning of the school year, a group of high school students has been actively engaged in reshaping the district's menus.
"School food just gets a bad rap," said Ben Mihal, a program chef with Brigaid, a culinary company assisting DPS. "We're just trying to raise that baseline a little bit."
In collaboration with Brigaid, the DPS Food and Health Council meets monthly and aims to provide students with high-quality, nutritious meals they enjoy.
"Our mission is to feed kids high-quality food that's nutritious but that they're also excited about," said Lindsey Long, a registered dietitian and community outreach coordinator for DPS.
Students have taken notice of significant improvements to the meals they have at school.
"Growing up and having cafeteria food, it's definitely different than what I experience in here at George Washington because we can see that this fresh food is given and then made in the cafeteria and provides, like, salads and really just organic stuff a lot of people like," said Graeme Elson, a member of the Greenhouse Committee at George Washington High.
The Greenhouse Committee supports the new food initiative by growing and supplying fresh vegetables and herbs to the school kitchen.
The council actively seeks student feedback on new recipes before they hit the cafeteria for another round of testing. As part of their meetings, the group sits down to taste potential menu items.
"They ask us about the food that we just tried, and that's what usually gets on the menus," said student council member Askari Heru-Cole.
Student lunch attendance has surged at George Washington High from about 100 students per day to approximately 400. Students have the option to leave campus for lunch.
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The overall goal of the initiative is to ensure all students have access to fresh, nutritious options.
"The most important thing for me is just food justice for other people and just people who can't get that same opportunity to just go to Whole Foods and get a $200 grocery list," said Heru-Cole.
The council's success partially leans on the initiative's focus on leveraging local resources. Students from the school's greenhouse contribute fresh vegetables and herbs to the kitchen, enabling a farm-to-table experience that also gets students excited about fresh food.
"It just feels great to see how all these different people are coming and eating the food that I helped grow and harvest, putting all my time and energy into it," Elson said.
"GW is such a diverse community, and people come from all sorts of backgrounds," said Abby Wenig, another student member of the Greenhouse Committee. "It's just really nice to know that you're giving these people nice, clean, healthy food to eat."
Involving students in menu planning not only increases meal participation but also helps students achieve better outcomes in behavior and academic performance at school.
"There are better behavior outcomes. There are better student success outcomes, not just from academics, but also social [and] emotional," said Long. "Children that eat not just school breakfast but also school lunch perform far and away. They have higher performance standards in everything."
As this initiative evolves, DPS aims to expand student participation in the Food and Health Council, establishing a similar structure in more high schools across the district.
"Let's get their input, put their input to work, and see what happens with participation," Long said.
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