Amy Halbert, Food Service Director at Andover Central School.

Andover Central School District is awarded Salad Bar to Schools grant

Andover Central School

September 26, 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Alyssa Dean

Cornell Cooperative Extension Allegany County

Phone: (585) 268-7644 ext. 25

Email: ald243@cornell.edu

Month, Day, Year

 

Text Box: Amy Halbert, Food Service Director at Andover Central School. Andover Central School District is awarded Salad Bar to Schools grant

ANDOVER, NY – We are pleased to inform our community that Andover Central School District (ACSD) is getting a salad bar this school year!

Andover Central School has been excitingly granted a salad bar through Salad Bars to Schools (SB2S), a program that provides schools and districts with salad bar equipment and support assistance. A current partner of the program, Whole Kids Foundation, has generously chosen to fund the salad bar and equipment.

Amy Halbert, 2nd year Food Service Director at ACSD states that the salad bar will be available to students sometime during this 2024-2025 school year. “This will be the first year we will have a salad bar implemented at ACSD in over five years, so we are really excited about being able to offer the students and staff a customized, nutritious food option.” says Halbert.

The salad bar is to be implemented into the middle and high school serving line, enabling students to choose a hot main entrée, as well as a custom salad. Halbert noted that the salad bar will include proteins like grilled chicken, ham, and turkey, as well as local eggs and cheese, and have a variety of dressings to choose from. ACSD plans to use other locally sourced produce for the salad bar from New York farmers and the school’s own high tunnel and courtyard garden.

SB2S will send all the equipment needed to fully implement the salad bar from the salad bar itself to trays, and pans, right down to the serving tongs. In addition, SB2S will provide two free enrollments for the School Food Institute’s Salad Bars in Schools Course that has captured years of best practices from districts that have implemented salad bars in one learning course for Amy and one of her team members. In the coming weeks, Halbert will devise a plan to phase in the salad bar at the school awaiting its onsite arrival.

The SB2S program has distributed 5,965 salad bar grants since 2010. Any district or independent school participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is eligible to apply for a salad bar grant if they offer the salad bar as part of the reimbursable meal and have an enrollment of at least 100 students.

For more information on the SB2S program or if you are a part of a school district interested in applying, please visit saladbars2schools.org. For assistance on procuring local items for your school salad bar, contact Alyssa Dean, Farm to School Coordinator / Ag in the Classroom Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension Allegany County at ald243@cornell.edu.

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