Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School, Corner Brook, NL
2018-2019 (Grant Year 1)
Farm to School looks different in every school community because it’s built by the community, for the community. When developing a F2S initiative it’s important to consider the needs of the students it will serve, as well as practical considerations like the physical school infrastructure. When it comes to implementing salad bars, one size certainly does not fit all, but we’re continually impressed by the creativity and ingenuity shown by school-based teams. Congrats to Immaculate Heart of Mary for a successful first season of F2S – complete with a custom built salad bar!
Despite getting started later than hoped, the salad bar received a fantastic welcoming and following in our school. The week leading up to opening day the students made decorations, art work, and learned about the importance of eating healthy and healthy living.
At Immaculate Heart of Mary we opted to build our own salad bar so that we could better meet the needs of our students. This allowed us to control the height for the children, as well as the bar’s mobility to fit in with our junior kindergarten routines. Once up and running, staff and students from Junior kindergarten to grade 12 took part weekly, with an average of 85 people each service.
Having no outside catering company allowed us flexibility to experiment with different food options and offer a wide variety to our students. Some of our salads, such as broccoli and cauliflower salad, were pre-made, while others provided an “assemble your own” option. Each week a variety of salads and toppings were offered, with student favourites like “taco salad” and “pizza delight” salad rotating every two weeks. The salad bar lunches were also rounded out weekly with offerings of soup and a variety of fresh fruit to make it a complete meal.
