Food Services Article - Irving ISD

IISD Food Service:
A Nation-Wide Leader in School Nutrition

According to the results of a recent national survey of food service directors, Irving ISD Food Service Department offers some of the healthiest, lowest cost meals in the country.

The School Nutrition Association’s (SNA) “School Nutrition Operations Report: The State of School Nutrition 2007” was accumulated from a survey of 1200 school nutrition directors nationwide. The report serves to establish benchmarks for child nutrition programs in numerous areas of operations.

The IISD Food Service Department is compared on the table below to the national averages stated in the SNA report:

	National Average	Irving ISD Food Service
Offer Fat-Free/Low-Fat Milk	97%	Yes
Offer Fresh Fruits & Vegetables	96%	Yes
Offer Salad Bars or Pre-Packaged Salads	88%	Yes
Offer Yogurt and/or Yogurt Drinks	81%	Yes
Offer From-Scratch Baked Items	63%	Yes
Offer Vegetarian Meals	52%	Yes
Lunch Price, Elementary	$ 1.66	$ 1.55
Lunch Price, Middle School	$ 1.85	$ 1.75
Lunch Price, High School	$ 1.90	$ 1.85
Breakfast Price, Elementary	$ .97	$ .80
Breakfast Price, Middle School	$ 1.03	$ .80
Breakfast Price, High School	$ 1.05	$ .80

Clearly, the IISD Food Service Department exceeds all of the national averages in nutrition/food-related criteria. For example, while only 63% of school districts nationwide offer “from scratch baked items”, the very skilled and talented IISD Food Service bakers still proudly make numerous items from scratch.

In addition, student meal prices are significantly lower in Irving ISD than the national averages, for both breakfast and lunch.

Thus, Irving ISD Food Service customers not only eat extremely nutritious meals, they also save money!