Plymouth School District’s Food Service Named “Operation of the Month” by National Publication

Although school cafeteria have often become the butt of jokes, one area school district is the subject of high praise from a national publication.

FoodService Director, a noncommercial organization that caters to the caterers among education facilities, business, industry and healthcare, said that at the Plymouth schools, foodservice extends to just about everywhere the students are: offering nutritional lessons in the classroom, appearing at Future Farmers of America club meetings, harvesting lunch ingredients from an on-campus greenhouse, and even purchasing pork from a student’s family farm.

Plymouth Schools’ Food Service Director Caren Johnson noted that in a rural hub like Plymouth, “…there’s a focus on eating real food and knowing where it comes from.  That means incorporating (nutrition education) into different parts of our students’ days, and into their lives.”

The students also participate through contributions of vegetables grown on-site in the high school’s greenhouse that serves in its horticulture and greenhouse management curriculum.  And with a push from the federal Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, Plymouth’s food service staff now makes around 60% of high school level meals from scratch, with about 40% at the middle school level and 25% at elementary.  It’s all a far cry from the pre-made offerings of the past, and which, along with the quality of the service, has now gained national recognition.