A new breakfast item is rolling out to HISD students this month. Students will now be able to enjoy a whole grain cinnamon kolache produced in the HISD bakery. Students from all grade levels will have the opportunity to taste it in April.
“It’s important we continue to introduce new menu items because we hope to pique student’s interest and encourage them to continue to eat with us,” said Nutrition Manager Amanda Oceguera. “By eating with us they are guaranteed a nutritious and well balanced meal with the essential nutrients needed to fuel for the day.”
Students at North Forest and Chavez high schools now have the option to create a chicken or beef taco bowl from the Tortilla line in their cafeteria. This new menu option is being piloted at the two campuses with hopes of expanding to additional high schools with Tortilla lines.
Are you making sure that NONE of the ingredients are or have any GMOs?
Unfortunately, the U.S. does not have any laws requiring manufacturers to label products as GMO products. The challenges with labeling GMO’s is that many times manufacturers have a difficult time verifying whether their product contains GMOs due to cross-contamination. For instance, pollen from a GMO field can fly into a non-GMO field and contaminate the product. It is our understanding that there is a limited amount of GMO’s that have been FDA approved; however most corn produced in the US will contain a GMO.
Until there are laws in place requiring manufacturers to label products, it is difficult for HISD Food Services to guarantee the products we receive do not contain GMOs. The department has worked hard to provide healthy menu items for our students which contain no trans fats, 100 percent whole grains at breakfast and 95 percent whole grains at lunch, skim or 1 percent milk and fat free flavored milk, an average of 20 vegetables offered each month, as well as menu items that not only meet but are significantly lower in federal regulated levels of calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium.