In the 2018 School Nutrition Operations Report, 56.5% of districts surveyed offered or planned to serve vegetarian meal options. For many districts, this might include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or meatless pizza. While this may be simple and familiar, there is an opportunity to incorporate more vegetarian meals that meet student's ever-changing taste preferences and provide a wider variety of nutritional value.

Being a part of your students' daily lives - whether in the lunchroom or in the classroom - creates a special and unique bond. What better day to celebrate the friendship and care you provide them than on Valentine's Day?

Below are a few simple ways to get students engaged and show them you love them:

Thanksgiving is around the corner and we know that you are always looking for fun and creative ways to celebrate in your schools! What better of a way to celebrate than by serving a Thanksgiving themed meal to your students.

Here's some ideas to help you get ready!

Coming up with new, healthy recipes for school cafeterias can be challenging to say the least.  Fortunately, many states and organizations across the country have developed cookbooks full of nutritious recipes school kids will love.

Here are 13 of our favorite school cookbooks that feature plenty of locally sourced ingredients and flavors from around the globe:

Are you looking for school recipes that are both nutritious and kid-approved?  The Recipes for Healthy Kids Cookbook, launched in September of 2013 as part of First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, features a collection of healthy and flavorful recipes selected from the Recipes for Healthy Kids Competition back in 2010.

Project Bread is a non-profit organization based in Boston, MA that strives to “bring a fresh approach to ending hunger”. With a dedicated group of public educators, thought leaders, nutrition professionals, and loyal donors, Project Bread has grown to become a huge player and catalyst in the fight for ending hunger.

One of their primary initiatives is providing schools with resources that help them serve healthy meals to our students every day. In Project Bread’s Let’s Cook Healthy School Meals Cookbook, they generously provide 100 healthy, satisfying, kid-approved recipes for schools across the nation.

Looking for a little bit of spice to heat up the school kitchen? Check out our school lunch recipe for Quinoa Enchilada Bake. Proving to be quite popular with high schoolers, this dish is a great way for students to eat their vegetables while also satisfying their taste buds.

As school nutrition professionals, we know you're always looking for tasty, yet healthy meals that meet guidelines and are also kid-approved.  One way to meet guidelines while satisfying student's taste buds is by adding more vegetables to 'tried and true' recipes like spaghetti.

This is a trick I learned when trying to make sure that my own son ate his veggies! After researching a few different spaghetti recipes, I found a hit with this one from the blog, Mommy's Kitchen. My son raves about this dish and, in our home, it's a win-win for everyone!