Food Services (NOSH)
Our mission is to support academic achievement by providing our students with delicious and healthy meals served by caring professionals. We strive to purchase local food items, use quality ingredients and prepare our meals from scratch. We do all this because we believe that healthy students are happy learners.
We have an exciting school year ahead of us, full of positive changes and delicious, healthy food!
By now you may have heard that the State of California was the first state to pass a new law that allows all students to eat breakfast and lunch at no cost - regardless of household income status! We are overjoyed that we can provide free breakfast and lunch to all of our students at our schools this year.
We are also pleased to share we will be offering Breakfast in the Classroom at the start of the school day at every K-8 site. This type of program is proven to increase student concentration and build a sense of community while decreasing behavioral issues and trips to the nurse’s office. So you no longer have to worry about your child's breakfast or lunch if you are rushing out the door in the morning, we will make sure your child is fed and their belly is full, so they are ready to learn.
Lastly, by October, we will have two new kitchens in the district at Bel Aire and Napa Valley Language Academy to support our growing and constantly developing scratch-cooking program!
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New all beef hotdog! This isn't just any hotdog. It is made with beef from ranchers who practice Regenerative Farming here in California! Ranchers like Richards Regenerative (Nevada City, CA) are committed to making a healthier and more sustainable source of beef. Did we mention it is DELICIOUS?!
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We will serve Mary’s Chicken wings and drumsticks - always antibiotic-free and with no added hormones.
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We have added “crunchy” tacos to our menu cycle - a kid favorite!
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All of our burger and hotdog buns are local and organic - from Alvarado Street Bakery in Petaluma.
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We have a new Bean and Cheese Pupusa made in Southern California and it is yummy!
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Our delicious scratch-made French Toast casserole, cheese lasagna, Pozole, and tomato soup!
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Our burritos, sandwiches, salads, and wraps!
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Local milk from Clover.
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Our hyper-local partnerships with Toasted Bagels and West Won Bakery.
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Local, grass fed ground beef and beef burger patties from Marin Sun Farms.
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Salad bars are stocked with seasonal items grown here in California! Keep an eye out for our Harvest of the Month salad bar feature, noted on the menu each month.
Thanks to our partners at CIA, Whole Foods and ChefAnn, our kids enjoy food that is nutritious and also tastes great!
NVUSD RECEIVES $63,500 CALIFORNIA FARM TO SCHOOL INNOVATION GRANT AND CELEBRATES THE NATIONAL LUNCH HERO RECOGNITION DAY MAY 7
Napa Valley Unified School District has been awarded a grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture to help the district expand its school food program. The grant includes a partnership with the Napa Farmers Market to provide a joint Harvest of the Month program with education materials.
The $63,500 California Farm to School Innovation Grant will bring California grown, minimally processed foods to NVUSD schools as well as provide education opportunities between cafeterias, classrooms and communities. This will be a great benefit to the NVUSD Food Service Department -- called NOSH -- Napa’s Operative for School Health.
Said NVUSD Food Service Director Kristen Tekell, “Providing kids with healthy and locally sustainable meals that are also delicious is a critical goal and we are very grateful to the Farm to School grant to help us achieve this for our students.”
“We are extremely grateful for this grant opportunity and look forward to establishing new local partnerships allowing us to offer healthy, local foods that kids will love!”
What is the Farm to School Program at NVUSD?
Farm to school connects our school community to fresh, healthy food and local food producers by changing food purchasing and education practices at schools and preschools. For students in Napa and American Canyon, this means a combination of bringing fresh and local ingredients and food education to campuses:
- Local foods are purchased, promoted and served in the cafeteria. (Local vendor partners include Mindful Meats in Petaluma and Walker Apple Farm in Graton.)
- Students are exposed to Harvest of the Month educational activities.
- Gardening tools and upgrades to the district’s Central Kitchen and school gardens
- Support for a NOSH farmers market event featuring a “blender bike” and nutrition materials
“Here in Napa, we are especially proud of our local quality ingredients and producers and want to do everything we can to connect kids to the amazing, nutritious food we have throughout the valley,” said Ms. Tekell.
Celebrating National School Lunch Heroes on May 7
NVUSD’s NOSH food services employees are being celebrated as part of the national Lunch Hero Day. This team of school nutrition professionals help prepare healthy meals for NVUSD students while navigating student food allergies and adhering to strict nutrition standards and COVID safety guidelines.
FREE Meals to all Students Next School Year
As announced on April 20, The USDA is extending the program to allow kids to eat for free though next school year. This announcement ensures safe, equal access to healthy school meals and addresses the continued pandemic meal service challenges.
NVUSD has implemented a clean-label initiative, in partnership with the Life Time Foundation, which helps schools remove what it calls the Harmful 7 from student breakfast and lunch menus:
- Trans Fats and Hydrogenated Oils
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Hormones and Antibiotics in Animal Production
- Added and Artificial Sweeteners
- Artificial Colors and Flavors
- Artificial Preservatives
- Bleached Flour
- In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.
- Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.
- To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form which can be obtained online at: https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDA-OASCR%20P-Complaint-Form-0508-0002-508-11-28-17Fax2Mail.pdf, from any USDA office, by calling (866) 632-9992, or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:
- mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or - fax:(833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
- email: program.intake@usda.gov.
- mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture
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