Growing Healthy
How to offer a taste-test in your school

Order and purchase fresh fruits and vegetables

• After examining budget, determine an appropriate serving of the featured item(s) for each student. For example, during our pilot Growing Healthy project we featured baked potatoes. We purchased 750 potatoes for approximately $95, and were able to serve about 1500 students ˝ of a baked potato with several choices of toppings.
• Order the fresh produce (to arrive just before the taste test event, to ensure freshness of the items).
• This is a good time to foster relationships with local grocers, as some are willing to donate fresh fruits and vegetables.

Develop media materials for featured fruit and vegetable

Useful materials for promoting a taste test event include:

• Table tents for cafeteria tables on the day of the event. Table tents make students aware that taste-testing is going on and provide for them some "fun facts" about the featured fruit and vegetable.
• Posters with bright, catchy pictures and/or facts about the featured items to hang in the cafeteria and in other high-traffic areas within the school. Posters can be hung before the event so that students expect the taste test.
• Recipe sheets, to be made available to students on the day of (and possibly after) the taste test. Recipe sheets should include the item served on that day (for example Pumpkin-Cranberry Bread for squash & cranberry month) and/or other simple, low-cost recipes that the students could bring home and prepare with their families.
• Newsletters which describe nutrition information about featured fruit and vegetable, offer recipes for parents to try with their children, and update readers about upcoming program/community events surrounding nutrition and physical activity. Newsletters are aimed at parents and can be "backpacked" home with students.

Promote featured fruit and vegetable

Send home newsletters, deliver posters to schools, communicate with community/school partners to promote taste test and featured items.

Communicate with food service staff to coordinate efforts

• Meet with food service director for district to decide how featured items will be prepared and served (and where they will be prepared, if not at each school). Have director advise food service leaders at each school about date of event and logistics for preparation.
• Before the day of taste test, talk with food service leader at each school to determine logistics of preparation for the day of (i.e. who will prepare it – food service staff or taste-test staff, how long preparation will take, whether featured item will be served on “the line” or whether it will be passed out to the students at their tables, etc).
• Make sure the food service staff knows the goals and objectives of the taste test and try to minimize the inconvenience they will experience because of the taste test event. Encourage them to test the featured items themselves and to contribute their opinions about preparation/cooking methods that will be most appealing to the students.

Prepare featured items (with food service staff or other predetermined method)

Slice fruit, bake/cook vegetables, prepare dip cups, etc. Place servings into individual cups or bowls for easy distribution. Individual servings can be placed on large trays and stacked so that large amounts of the item are ready when the students arrive.

Serving children on the line and throughout the lunchroom

• It is often most convenient to serve featured items on the line, where they get their lunch trays. Some items can be served right onto the tray along with the rest of the meal (like broccoli and dip) and some can be available for the students to select if they wish (like many of the fruit items). It is helpful to have a taste-test staff member standing next to the featured item and encouraging students to taste it, especially with the young children who are unable to see items placed on a high counter.
• After children purchasing lunch have been served and are seated, a taste test staff person can go around the cafeteria with a tray of the featured item and offer it to students who brought their lunches from home. This staff member can also serve as an educator for students who are unfamiliar with the featured item or who are hesitant about trying it.
• When all students have been served, students can be offered seconds if the supply allows.

Educate children about featured item

• Since children eat at school every day, it is important to distinguish the taste test from other regular lunch days. Some ways to do this include making an announcement about the taste tests during lunch, walking around the cafeteria to educate children about the featured item and/or nutrition ("table teachings"), and bringing posters or other materials to have on display in the cafeteria during the taste test.
• When possible, prepare taste test items in a place where the students can observe the preparation. Examples include: blending smoothies, juicing oranges, cutting apples, slicing tropical fruit, stir-frying vegetables, etc. Capturing the children’s attention increases the likelihood that they will try the featured items and sparks their interest in fruits and vegetables.

This guide is based on taste-tests conducted during the implementation of Growing Healthy in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. Growing Healthy is a project of the Institute for Community Health in partnership with the Cambridge and Somerville Food Service Departments, CitySprouts, and Groundwork Somerville.

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