Seattle Public Schools’ new foodservice director has decided to move away from a districtwide menu to better suit the cultural background and taste preferences of students, My Northwest reports.
Since joining the district last school year, Director of Nutrition Services Aaron Smith has noticed that students have different food preferences depending on what part of the city they’re from.
He told My Northwest that there is a high percentage of Somali students living in the western part of the city, for example, while students in south Seattle enjoy Southern cuisine and those in the central part of the city prefer Asian cuisine.
Smith decided to split the district into five quadrants and survey students in each to find out what they enjoy eating, and then create menus based on their responses.
Smith has also tried to reduce the amount of processed items on the menu. One of the first changes he instituted was switching from processed chicken nuggets to whole-muscle natural chicken.