New deli-style healthy food choices are a huge success at Barren County High School; meet federal nutrition guidelines too

BCHS Director of Nutrition Services
CheyAnne Fant and Assistant Nutrition
Services Manager Danielle Certain at the
high school's new Fresh Market 95210
(Daily Times photo by Jeff Nations)

Students and staff at Barren County High School have embraced the school's new healthier "grab and go" option that looks and feels like a deli, Jeff Nations reports for the Glasgow Daily Times.

“Part of our strategic plan for nutrition services was to create areas that made you feel like you were in like, small shops or different venues that those students could go to,” CheyAnne Fant, Barren County’s director of nutrition services, told Nations. “And the second purpose of that was to decrease the time that the students were in line so that they’d have more time to eat.”

This new option offers deli-style sandwiches, fresh salads, fruits and vegetables, chips and smoothies and is called "Fresh Market 95210," which represents a district-wide wellness policy that says students should get: • 9 hours of sleep • 5 servings of fruit or vegetables • 2 hours or less of screen time • 1 hour of physical activity • 0 sugar-added beverages.

The school offered a "grab and go" option in the past, but the meal components were pre-assembled and served in a bag. Students and staff can now create their own grab-and-go lunch with some stipulations, in accordance to the National School Lunch Program’s requirements for reimbursement to the school, Nations reports.

"For example, at Fresh Market 95210 if a student chose a sandwich, they would have their choice of any fruit or vegetable and any other side item. If they select a salad (chef or vegetarian), their required fruit/vegetable serving is met and they can choose any other two sides," he writes.

Fant told Nations that the school has more than doubled its grab-and go meal sales since Fresh Market 95210 opened seven days after school began, going from about 31 a day in the first seven days of school to 67 a day, also noting that 24 percent of adult sales have since come from the Fresh Market.

Victoria Smith, a senior at BCHS, told Nations why she liked the Fresh Market: “There’s more time to sit down and talk. It’s quicker, there’s not as many people over there, and it’s healthy.”

“One of the things I think is exciting about this next generation of kids coming through that I think about is that they’re already going to have those healthy habits developed,” Shelly Young, the school’s central kitchen assistant manager, told Nations. “It’s going to be exciting to see it, but what’s really good is those things are already established so we’re going to have a whole generation of kids who are growing up healthier.”