School meals director and vendor detail menu changes, participation and food-safety steps

Diana Michelini, the district's director of the school meals program, and vendor staff told the Jericho Union Free School District board that participation has climbed since universal free meals began for New York State schools. "So we're serving about 3,200 meals," Michelini said, citing the program's average meals-per-service-day and explaining that a la carte sales push the meal count above total enrollment.

Michelini and vendor representatives described menu changes, daily rotating entrees, vegetarian options and a plan to remove artificial colorings from snacks. The presentation stressed federal and state nutrition requirements: "Every meal has to have a fruit or vegetable at lunch. Every breakfast meal needs to include a fruit," a staff member said, noting menus are reviewed by chefs and dietitians. Board members pressed on operational details — swipe times, middle-school breakfast service (07:00–07:30 was cited for middle school), and whether second meals are allowed — and staff said the district uses a point-of-sale system to track allergies and participation and repurposes leftover hot entrees through snack windows or after-school sales.

The presentation also flagged ongoing student feedback work. Michelini said Aramark is running a three-week student survey to better understand why some students do not participate, and that the district has seen roughly a 10% increase in breakfast participation compared with last year. The board and staff discussed smaller implementation items raised by parents, such as a request to revisit toasters and to reconsider portion sizes for older students; staff described safety and operational constraints and stated they will review those requests.