Every school day, students at Stockdale High in Bakersfield, California can choose from 18 feet worth of healthy choices at their new salad bar.
Students can start their salad with chopped romaine, spring mix or spinach and dabble on fresh toppings like raw yam slivers, snow peas, mushrooms, sliced peppers, fresh berries, mango and dried cherries. The bar also features fajita meat, a variety of beans, trail mix, hummus and potato salad.
When the cafeteria staff realized students were weighing their salads down with too many higher calorie options, they rearranged the salad bar putting the fruits and vegetables at the start of the line and the meat, croutons and cheese at the finish. They also switched to smaller serving spoons for these end-of-the-line choices. Students are now selecting more fresh produce, leaving less room in their salad bowls for calorie-dense foods.
The cafeteria had to increase meal prices to pay for the new salad bar, but kids have been so excited about the healthy choices that more students are purchasing school lunch. The school district is working to identify enough funding and support to bring salad bars to other schools too.
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