Eat Smart online suggestion box

The Eat Smart team gets a lot of great suggestions from TBS parents all the time. One of our biggest struggles is determining if these suggestions are agreed upon by the majority of parents.

To help us evaluate and prioritize suggestions, we just created a web page which will allow parents (and students) to submit, discuss, and vote on ideas for the Eat Smart program. Hopefully this will help us make better decisions for improvements to Eat Smart with Gregoire.

Post your suggestion now or vote on or discuss existing ideas:
Eat Smart online suggestion box

Lunch a bit late today

We just wanted to let everyone know that for the first time ever, lunch was served about 10 minutes late today. We had a different driver deliver our Gregoire pizza and she hit bad traffic due to the rain. All the students got fed and seemed to be happy after lunch.

Sign up now for Spring semester of Eat Smart with Gregoire!

Enrollment is now open for Eat Smart with Gregoire for the first half of the Spring semester: Jan. 3, thru Apr. 1, 2011.

Click here to Enroll Now!

Thanks to the great feedback via the parent surveys and discussions with many students, we are pleased to announce a few improvements to the Eat Smart with Gregoire! program for next semester.

- Parents and students want more menu rotation. This doesn't mean different menu items, rather rotation of items that are already on the menu. For example, we will no longer be serving Asian-style brown rice every Monday. Mondays will now alternate between rice and other menu favorites.

- Many students requested we remove the cheesy enchilada from the menu. Done!

- The 3 days/wk option is now for lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays instead of Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays. We are no longer offering the 2 days/wk option.

Pricing for hot lunches for the first half of the Spring semester:

K – 5: Jan. 3, thru Apr. 1, 2011
- 3 days/week Mon, Wed & Fri = $146
- 5 days/week Monday - Friday = $243

6th, 7th & 8th grade: Jan. 3, thru Apr. 1, 2011
- 3 days/week Mon, Wed & Fri = $157
- 5 days/week Monday - Friday = $262

Deadline to enroll for the Spring semester is Dec 29. You can stop by the office to pick up an enrollment form or sign up now via our online form.

Announcing: Eat Smart with Gregoire!

Good news! After evaluating various lunch providers, we are very proud to announce that TBS' own Gregoire Jacquet will be providing hot lunches 5 days a week to K-8 students starting Monday, October 18! (Parents new to TBS can learn more about Gregoire here.)

Sign up here!

Gregoire has created a fabulous menu of delicious, prepared-from-scratch meals made with the finest all-natural, organic and locally-sourced ingredients. Every month will be a blend of new seasonal lunch items designed using local produce as well as tried-and-true kid favorites.

Eat Smart with Gregoire: the cream of the crop
We are committed to providing our students with healthy food every day. Eat Smart with Gregoire! will:

• Serve only organic fresh fruits and vegetables every day
• Use whole grain products to the maximum extent possible -- for example, pasta, bread and tortillas will be whole wheat
• Use sustainably farmed, hormone- and antibiotic-free, and pasture-based meats and poultry
• Never use trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup
• Never use artificial food additives and processes, such as bovine growth hormones, irradiation, and genetically modified foods

An Eat Smart with Gregoire! lunch will consist of a hot entrée (vegetarian option available daily) with student’s choice of sides. Fruit and vegetable side choices will always be organic and dairy products will always be hormone-free. Depending on the season, typical sides could include a combination of: apples, oranges, stone fruit, bananas, melon, grapes, steamed broccoli, cherry tomatoes, carrots, steamed edamame, cucumbers, mozzarella cheese sticks, cheddar cheese cubes, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt and much more. Drinks are not included in the lunch program. We encourage students to bring milk or water in a reusable container to school daily.

Pricing:

K- 5th grades- Oct 18 thru Dec 17, 2010

The whole enchilada: 5 days/week Mon-Fri = $176

Spice things up: 3 days/week Tues, Wed & Thurs = $106

Food for thought: 2 days/week Mon and Fri = $70

6th, 7th or 8th grades - Oct 18 thru Dec 17, 2010

The whole enchilada: 5 days/week Mon-Fri = $190

Spice things up: 3 days/week Tues, Wed & Thurs = $114

Food for thought: 2 days/week Mon and Fri = $76

Sign up here!

Important Dates
Monday, Oct 4 - Campus-wide student tasting during lunch hour.
Tuesday, Oct 12 - Parent tasting. Join us for “Hors d’ouevres at the corner” during pick-up time.
Wednesday, Oct 13 - Deadline to enroll.
Monday, Oct 18 – Eat Smart with Gregoire! lunches begin.

Questions?

Email: eatsmart@theberkeleyschool.org

Welcome to Eat Smart with Gregoire!

Survey result for pilot lunch program

You've asked and we've listened -- below is a summary of the survey results from the pilot lunch program in January. Click here to see the Full Survey Results.

Parent Survey Results: (131 respondents!)

Parents feedback: 93% said the hot lunch trial program was "excellent" or "very good"!

Parents' top priorities: (Respondents rated ALL six categories as a 4 or 5 on a 1-5 scale)

1. Convenience of not packing lunch (95% support!)
   
2. Organic, sustainable, local, nutritious food (92% support!)

Other priorities:

• Community-building around shared lunch
  
• Curriculum around food: farm field trips, gardening, etc
  
• "Eat Green": Modeling good environmental practices
• Food variety: growth opportunity for kids

Common comments:

• Want it to be made part of tuition
• Want more vegetarian, more fruits & veggies, whole grains, etc; not regular dessert (prefer fruit/yogurt)
• Want 100% organic
• Want more choice in daily menu (some kids came home hungry due to lack of choice); too gourmet
• Recycle & compost everything

Price:

• Respondents willing to pay on average: $4.40/day
• Over 80% are willing to pay $4/day

Volunteer / Donate:

• 40% of respondents willing to volunteer regularly!
• 70% of respondents willing or "maybe willing" to donate!

Full Survey Results

Help us get a grant!

Do you or anyone you know have a connection to a grant foundation? We're looking for a foundation that would want to provide supplemental support to a extraordinary food program with ambitions to become a leading example for schools around the country. Please contact Gina Tega-Partovi if you have a lead for us -- no lead is too small!

Eat Smart! vision and implementation plan

Below is a PowerPoint slideshow including the vision and 3-year implementation plan for the Eat Smart program. This document is a work in progress and will change as we learn new information and make decisions.

(Click on the square to the left of the "Google docs" icon to make the slideshow bigger.)

Welcome to the Eat Smart blog!

This is your best source of information about the Eat Smart program. We will post the latest information about the program, upcoming meeting dates, minutes from past meetings, requests for volunteers and anything else you tell us you'd like to know!

For those of you that are new to blogs, here's a few user notes:

Under each blog entry, you will see a "Comments" link. To leave feedback about that entry, click on the link and leave your comment. Your comments will be public and can be read by anyone. We've created this blog because we really want your feedback on Eat Smart so please use the comment link often!

On the right-hand side of the blog, you will find:
- Eat Smart Documents
This is a list of the working documents the committee has created for Eat Smart. Check here frequently for links to new documents like the survey results from the January pilot lunch program.
- Contact us!
Here are the email addresses for committee members. Please feel free to contact us directly with any comments or feedback.