Healthy Food Contest Included & What’s The Real Story About School What Were Fed @ JSEC?

Healthy Food Contest Included & Whats The Real Story About School What Were Fed @ JSEC?

Julio Lozada & Henry Alfaro, Journalists

“Whats for breakfast”  is a question many of us think about upon travelling to JSEC daily.   The fact that we have breakfast is so important and truth be told if we didn’t eat breakfast at school many of us wouldn’t be eating till lunchtime.  Our school’s breakfast usually consists of many different choices: yogurt, egg sandwich on an English muffin, cold cereal, or maybe a blueberry muffin?  Whatever we have it seems to start our day off right.  Lunch has a variety of choices and includes pizza, chicken, and beef items and we also have a sandwich station and salad bar. We really want more latin food selections; such as rice, beans, frijoles, platanos, mangu, and flan.   We also would like drinks added such as pinapple juice.   After watching clips of  Super Size me  and learning more about our digestive systems, we have been curious about food choices we have and what the real story is regarding the food we eat at JSEC.

We discovered the name of the company who serves us is Sodexo, and they serve  breakfast, lunches, and also cater many events that take place @ JSEC.  We spoke with Marilyn Gallucci, a Sodexo Supervisor, and she informed us about many different aspects of what their company does for our school and community.   She shared that one of the main goals for them was to provide each student a fully balanced meal and added that this contributes to allowing students to thrive at school.

The students seemed to enjoy the food items offered and really got excited when Sodexo changed things up a bit by bringing their “Street Eatz” food truck to JSEC this month.   Students pictured below really enjoyed the different food choice option. Hundreds of students and faculty stepped outside to enjoy this healthy option.

 

Marilyn also shared that they are also selling healthy snacks and spoke about the Healthy Snacks Challenge, which is a fundraising effort throughout Providence Schools, where each school had the goal main to  raise money through their healthy sales of RI Dept. of Health approved healthy snacks.   This contest is held every year and a few years ago it brought in $2500 for JSEC and $1,000 last year. This years’ contest is in full swing and winners will be announced shortly.

“Sodexo follows the approved USDA Federal Guidelines and also strickly adheres to the Rhode Island Nutritional Requirements” -Marilyn Galucci-Sodexo

http://www.thriveri.org/documents/RINR2009_%20BOR_%20Mandated%2011%205%2009.pdf

In addition to discussing meal and snack quality she shared that the pizza was made with whole grains and that many of the veggies are locally grown right here in RI on Pezza Farm in Johnston RI.  Marilyn  offered an open invite for JSEC students to participate in taking a tour of the farm and that she was more than willing to assist in organizing a field trip to the farm.

Students can also access the Sodexo On My Way website which offers much more information on:  meal assistance, students well being, news, sustainability,  & careers.

https://providence.sodexomyway.com/

All in all Sodexo is trying hard to keep JSEC students healthy and well fed.  Portion size control is standard, however; JSEC students expressed they would most certainly not refuse a bigger portion or a 2nd helping as they get at home.

“I like the food in the cafeteria but sometimes I wish that they would give Second Helpings”- Julio Lozardo (JSEC Journalist)

“I like the food but I wish they would give a little more food on the plate”- Henry Alfaro (JSEC Journalist)

JSEC students will continue to work with Sodexo and Sodexo will continue to work with JSEC to ensure communication of the best and of course healthiest products are made available to all who partake.