St. Louis Park Public Schools is redesigning the dining experience at the High School. We want families to ask their students, “So, how was lunch at school today?” and for students to respond excitedly about healthy meal options, colorful plates, and meaningful conversation with their friends.
Our redesign process will include updates to the physical space in the cafeteria, a renovated kitchen with updated equipment, and changes that will improve the overall dining experience, like healthier meal options, expanded seating, community-building and time with peers, and more.
In the fall of 2023, we surveyed students and caregivers about the district’s School Nutrition program. The following are the highlights from the survey results:
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The school nutrition staff in the kitchens and cafeterias get very positive ratings from both students and parents.
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Most students very much see their lunch period as a time to connect with their friends.
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The results from the question about “find meals I like to eat” is about 60 positive and 40 negative, which indicated opportunities to change how meal options are described and presented.
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Close to 50 percent of parents disagree or strongly disagree about the availability of healthy options for students in the cafeterias. This also presents an opportunity to share messages about healthy meal options and what is both required and offered as part of meal service.
Additionally, over the next several weeks, we hope to work with student interns to hold focus groups with their peers to understand what changes they’d like to see in the high school dining experience. Their findings will be shared with District Nutrition staff and the Construction Steering Committee with the goal of centering student experience in the redesign process.
What can students expect in the new dining experience once it’s complete in 2024?
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The renovated kitchen will enhance our capacity to have healthy and delicious cooking on-site. We’ll have the ability to prepare meats and vegetables in a variety of ways using braising pans to cook, grill, and fry foods, and the Rational oven to roast and steam foods. A fresh salad bar or veggie bar will be offered at every meal.
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Continued seasonally fresh produce like potatoes, zucchini, squash and carrots from our Farm to School partners. Did you know we get our Delica squash from the Yang family farm in New Prague, Minnesota?
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Taste testing new meal options and opportunities for students to share their feedback on their favorite meals. We definitely want to know what’s most popular with students. Some of our cooks come up with their own menu items, and we also share recipe ideas with other school districts.
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Dedicated cooks who receive training from professional chefs at Good Acre, one of SLP’s Farm to School partners, and other partner chefs. There will also be professional training with the kitchen equipment manufacturers on how to optimize our kitchen and make delicious foods.
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Expanded seating capacity, new furniture, and visually a better dining experience
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Fewer lunch sections to make the whole day run more smoothly.
Our Nutrition Services team will be testing out new menu items this school year, so we encourage families to check out our recipes and meals items through our online meal menus.
We want to make high school families aware that the kitchen redesign is a major construction project that will disrupt the regular lunch schedule at the high school for about 18 months, beginning in September, 2023. During this time, students will eat meals in the activity center and we will only be able to offer cold bento box options for breakfast and lunch.
Examples of cold bento box meals include sandwiches, wraps, and salads that come with fresh whole fruit and veggies. The bento box meals will be satisfying portions that will be prepared and assembled at the kitchen at the Central building, the satellite kitchen for the High School during the renovation.
