Chartwells School Dining Services Educates North Haven High School About Fresh Eating Through Simply Good Initiative

High School Students Participate in Chef Demonstrations and Kitchen Tours While Sampling Fresh Produce

NORTH HAVEN, CT, January 4, 2013 – Chartwells School Dining Services is proud to announce an update on its Simply Good – You Are Sustainable program, a farm to table initiative focused on sourcing and serving fresh and local produce in school dining centers.  This program was implemented in Chartwells dining centers all across the U.S. from October – mid December 2012.    

In the New England area, Chartwells representatives collaborated with various farm-to-school programs and state agricultural offices to connect with local farmers and increase the supply of local produce to its schools.  The organization also implemented several activities to teach students about where their food comes from, how to prepare fresh foods and how eating healthy can still be delicious.  At North Haven High School, high school seniors participated in the following Simply Good activities:

• Tours of the school kitchen that taught students about food preparation and techniques.
• Food demonstrations by Chartwells’ onsite chef, Sandra DiTullio, who demonstrated and sampled a fresh kale chips recipe.
• Local “farmer’s markets” where local food vendors such as Fresh Point Produce, Guida Dairy, Hershey and Rockland Bakery offered food samples to the students, including fresh apple cider from Carlson Orchards in Harvard, MA, Hershey Ice Cream showcased new menu items that meet the Healthy Food Certification and whole-grain breads that met the USDA school meal requirements.

“By inviting students to tour our kitchen, we were able to show them how the local foods arrive from the farms, how we prepare the fresh foods onsite and then serve them at school,” said Jill Donnelly, Chartwells Director of Dining Services at North Haven Public Schools. “All of the activities we planned for the Simply Good program were designed to take the mystery out of school lunch and show the students that we are serving real, wholesome, foods that also taste good, right at their own school.”

Through Chartwells’ Simply Good — You are Sustainable program students are introduced to fresh and local foods at school.  The food choices that we make have a significant impact on our health, our environment and our community. Chartwells believes it’s important to teach students about sustainable food practices that will create a better environment now and for future generations.  

About Chartwells School Dining ServicesChartwells, a division of Charlotte, NC-based Compass Group provides dining services for over 550 public school districts and private schools, comprising over 6,000 separate elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.  For more information about Chartwells School Dining Services, visit www.eatlearnlive.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.  For more information about Chartwells Simply Good program, visit www.simplygoodfood.org.

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