Fayetteville Middle School Students Test New Pizza For Lunch

STAFF PHOTO DAVID GOTTSCHALK Grace Martin, 12, a Holt Middle School sixth-grader, tries a piece of barbecue chicken and vegetable pizza during a tasting at lunch Monday at the school in Fayetteville. Members of the student council served samples to fellow students as part of a project allowing students to sample and vote on possible new healthy menu items.
STAFF PHOTO DAVID GOTTSCHALK Grace Martin, 12, a Holt Middle School sixth-grader, tries a piece of barbecue chicken and vegetable pizza during a tasting at lunch Monday at the school in Fayetteville. Members of the student council served samples to fellow students as part of a project allowing students to sample and vote on possible new healthy menu items.

— Students at Holt Middle School gave a thumbs up for a barbecue chicken and vegetable pizza that could be added as a lunch item.

Monday's regular menu was a choice of hamburger or cheeseburger with french fries or sweet and sour chicken and rice or hot and spicy chicken and rice. Sixth-graders gathered around a table on the side of the lunch room to taste a sample of the pizza and vote whether to add it to the menu.

Isaiah Miller, 13, said the different tastes blended together to form a great piece of pizza.

After one bite, C.J. Haile gave it the thumbs up.

The pizza featured a whole wheat crust, barbecued chicken, mozzarella cheese, chips of zucchini, red pepper and red onion, said Allyson Mrachek, the Farm to School coordinator for the school district.

The idea for a taste test came from a presentation Mrachek gave to the Holt Student Councils. Students had asked for more choices in the cafeteria, according to a schoolwide survey.

Jane Corrigan, adviser for the councils, said the students brainstormed and decided the chicken and vegetable pizza was the choice most of their peers would like.

"Oh, yeah. I vote yes," said Keshawn Chism, 13, sitting across the table from Miller. Asked if he ate the vegetables, he said, "Yes, the vegetables are good for you."

At another table, Olivia Smith, 12, and Morgan Browning, 11, said the pizza was "pretty good" after they picked off the vegetables, eating only the chicken and reduced fat cheese.

Mrachek said she wasn't surprised some students weren't eating the vegetables.

"It's a lifelong process to learn to eat vegetables," she said, noting that it may take several tries before a child learns to like eating a particular vegetable. The selection of the chicken and veggie pizza lends itself to using locally grown vegetables when they are in season, she added.

Mrachek said the taste test is a marketing tool that could increase participation in the school lunch program.

Monday's taste test was led by the fifth and sixth grade Student Council. Today's tasting will be a chicken and cole slaw wrap led by the seventh grade Student Council.

Depending on the outcome of the vote, Mrachek said the barbecue chicken and vegetable pizza could be a line item in the cafeteria next month after it undergoes a nutritional analysis of the ingredients and amounts needed.

NW News on 03/18/2014

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