Ready Pac Hosts New Jersey Healthy School Lunch Event

Last month Ready Pac hosted a Salad Day at Osage Elementary School in Voorhees County, New Jersey. The event helped raise awareness of New Jersey’s innovative strides to combat childhood obesity, starting with healthy school meals. School administrators, students and media were invited, along with Ready Pac’s Executive Chef and other staff. Students from grades one through five were invited to sample Ready Pac Cool Cuts bowl salads, which are among multiple healthy school lunch choices available to the students. Deborah Zee, director of food services, Voorhees Township Public Schools, who organized the Salad Day to raise school district parents’ awareness of the availability at public school cafeterias of healthy student meals and snacks, and she was very enthusiastic about the event. “We could not have asked for a better day [and] the kids loved the salads,” says Zee. “I think if more schools would try a day like we just had they would see how much the students eat and enjoy healthier offerings like salads.” New Jersey school foodservice directors have been hard at work to implement the strict federal guidelines for school meals. Their programs, as part of the National School Lunch program, have key requirements including portion sizes that may be challenging to meet.  Ready Pac’s fresh meals and snacks for schools help foodservice directors meet the guidelines, are kid-friendly and provide variety. On Salad Day at Osage Elementary School, Ready Pac’s Chef Thomas Helsel, decked out in a tall chef’s hat that caught the attention of the school children, provided the students and administration samples of Ready Pac Cool Cuts Salads and reinforced the message that it is important to eat healthy – which includes eating a healthy lunch at school. “Ready Pac is known for pioneering innovations in value-added produce and fresh meals,” says Tristan Simpson, Ready Pac’s director of marketing and corporate communications.  “We want to recognize the leadership of New Jersey and the Voorhees County School District for their pioneering efforts to help curb the childhood obesity crisis by making a variety of healthy school meals available to students.”