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During the Feb. 13 school board meeting, it was announced that the Suffolk Public Schools Nutrition Services have been selected to join the 2024-2025 Virginia School Recipe Development Team. Nutrition Services was also awarded a $5,000 grant from “Share Our Strength.”

Dr. Lawrence Whiting, director of Food and Nutrition Services, and Angela Howell, Nutritional Services compliance coordinator, represent one of 13 Virginia school divisions selected to participate on the Recipe Development Team.

According to the SPS website, this team is a collaboration between the Virginia Department of Education and the Office of School and Community Nutrition Programs to create new school meals that are both “nutritious and delicious.”

While following USDA guidelines, the team will also be using ingredients that highlight local agriculture. Whiting said he and Howell are focused on not only using local produce but also whatever is in season. For February, Whiting made a parmesan-crusted zucchini dish, and Howell made a cucumber salad. 

Whiting said they would present the new dishes to the SPS students and collect data on how they like it. Whatever seems to go over well will be added to their menu and submitted to the rest of the team in December.

The $5,000 grant awarded to the SPS Nutrition Services is from “Share Our Strength,” an organization that works with schools to provide breakfast for students and can be used to help purchase needed equipment and staff.

SPS will use the grant to purchase milk barrels for all locations to ensure the kids have cold milk available for breakfast.

This addition will help streamline breakfast in the mornings, Whiting said. 

“That also sort of increases the class time, because in years past, they were sitting in the cafeteria eating for 30 minutes, or however long it was, and now … those minutes are now in the classroom,” he said.

In addition to the milk barrels, Whiting said he is also hopeful some of the grant money can go toward providing hot meals for breakfast.

All SPS schools do offer free breakfast and lunch.