EDMOND — “Ummm, this smells good.”
Third-grader Ethan Wickman’s eyes lit up as he took a deep breath and turned to his friend, Jake McCoy. Ethan said every meal so far this year has been good at Cross Timbers Elementary School.
Edmond’s School Board made a decision last spring to use Cross Timbers as a pilot school to introduce new menus with more fresh produce and meat.
Dave Fouts, a chef with Simply Smart Food and an Edmond Sun columnist, made the proposal to develop and implement a cost-effective, nutritious and tasty school breakfast and lunch program that will be healthy, contribute to academic performance and that eventually can be implemented district-wide.
As the students swarmed to the cafeteria some could still be seen bringing their lunch while many more lined up in the hot lunch lines.
Parent Robyn Harwell volunteers once a month as a Lunch Pal helping in the cafeteria.
“My daughter loves the food,” Harwell said, “and she hasn’t asked to bring her lunch one day. The food looks like something you would make at home. It really looks home made.”
One student eating a hot lunch for the first time this year liked the menu option of BBQ pulled pork.
Cara Calhoun, a third-grader, said she usually brings her lunch, but she plans to eat the hot lunches more often.
“I like the macaroni and cheese with ham the best so far,” said third-grader Ella Meyer as she cleaned her plate of Texas toast and Carolina barbecue pulled pork, baked beans and apple crisp, all made from scratch.
The other choice for the day’s lunch entree was a roast beef sandwich with no cheese.
When asked if he liked the pulled pork, Zac Claiborne said, “Oh, yeah, it’s awesome!”
A statement not often heard in an elementary cafeteria; the principal attributes he number of students buying hot meals this year to the meals that are being prepared.
“We have 680 students that are eligible for lunch,” Cathey Bugg, principal said. “Our highest day was well over 550 plates and we usually run more than 500. Last year we averaged 380 students eating hot meals a day.”
Bugg attributed the fact so many children were eating lunch to two things.
“First, I think the food tastes great,” Bugg said, “and that surprised some of the students. They are being offered new choices and are trying things like chicken caccitorie, and they like it.”
She said the second thing is how appealing the food looks.
“The broccoli is bright green; the watermelon is deep red,” Bugg said. “The homemade corn and black bean salsa looked so pretty the first day of school when the children had soft tacos. When it looks pretty it is more appealing to eat.”
She said the first day’s taco bar “was fabulous” with well seasoned taco meat and in addition to the corn and black bean salsa, homemade tomato salsa was offered as well as beautiful tomatoes, fresh lettuce, cheese and sour cream for the children to make their tacos the way they liked them.
Bugg said Fouts is working with local farms as part of the Farm to School program, and they are providing beautiful produce for the school to use each day.
“We are not using foods that are processed or preserved,” Bugg said. “Who wouldn’t want their kids to eat one of our hot meals?”
She said the turkeys roasted Wednesday were whole turkeys, and they looked beautiful.
“The school smells wonderful every day,” Bugg said. “Even the teachers are eating healthy. My assistant principal has lost three pounds.
As for Fouts, Bugg says “Chef Dave” steps out of the kitchen into the cafeteria and talks with the students about what they liked or didn’t like about their meal that day.
“He is really personable,” Bugg said. Saying they share the same goal, “What we really want to do is prepare food the kids like and will eat.”
Fouts said, “The biggest problem we have come up against this year is we didn’t order enough when we first started.”
The program is being accomplished with the same number of cafeteria help that the school had last year.
“We have brought in three culinary professionals who are teaching our workers and next year we will have our own three trained chefs and three additional trained cafeteria workers.
Bugg said in the planning stage are special events including Mommy and Me and Daddy and Me days to encourage parents to come and eat with their children.
Parent Tom Backry was visiting his fifth-grader, Michael, for lunch Wednesday.
“I’ve been coming to school and eating lunch for about seven years now,” Backry said. “I thought this was a great improvement. In the past years I have seen tons of food thrown away, not today.”
Backry said he thought he would save his final judgment until Thanksgiving dinner. Until then, “I think it is a win-win situation.”
pmiller@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 171
