Close Menu
  • Home
  • News
    • Local
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Health
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Podcast

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot

Inside the Mind of Russell Vought: Trump’s Enforcer

25 States Suing Trump USDA for Gutting Food Aid to 40 million Americans

MacKenzie Scott: A Philanthropy of the Spirit in an Age of Abandonment

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • Lifestyle
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest Vimeo
The Windy City Word
  • Home
  • News
    1. Local
    2. View All

    Youth curfew vote stalled in Chicago City Council’s public safety committee

    Organizers, CBA Coalition pushback on proposed luxury hotel near Obama Presidential Center

    New petition calls for state oversight and new leadership at Roseland Community Hospital

    UFC Gym to replace shuttered Esporta in Morgan Park

    Four Minute Offense: The Jets Circle the Wagons

    The Four Minute Offense: Jalen Hurts Triumphantly Bounces Back

    HBCU Football Wrap-Up: Tenn. State, FAMU, and Morehouse win on Homecoming Weekend

    Titans and QB Cam Ward are dedicated to two ideals: Growth and Development

  • Opinion

    Capitalize on Slower Car Dealership Sales in 2025

    The High Cost Of Wealth Worship

    What Every Black Child Needs in the World

    Changing the Game: Westside Mom Shares Bally’s Job Experience with Son

    The Subtle Signs of Emotional Abuse: 10 Common Patterns

  • Business

    Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology supplier diversity office to host procurement webinar for vendors

    Crusader Publisher host Ukrainian Tech Businessmen eyeing Gary investment

    Sims applauds $220,000 in local Back to Business grants

    New Hire360 partnership to support diversity in local trades

    Taking your small business to the next level

  • Health

    THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Hit-and-Run Epidemic Continues to Plague South L.A

    Recognizing World Mental Health Day: How families play a crucial role in suicide prevention

    Denied Care, Divided Nation: How America Fails Its Sickest Patients—and the People Fighting Back

    Unbreakable: Black Women and Mental Health

    A Question of a Government Shutdown?

  • Education

    PRESS ROOM: Application Window Closing Soon for Disney Dreamers Academy at Walt Disney World Resort

    Affirming Black Children Through Books: Stories That Help Them See Their Light

    OP-ED: Thena Robinson Mock: My American History

    How Babies’ Brains Develop

    Head Start Gave the Author an Early Inspiration to Share Her Story

  • Sports

    Four Minute Offense: The Jets Circle the Wagons

    The Four Minute Offense: Jalen Hurts Triumphantly Bounces Back

    HBCU Football Wrap-Up: Tenn. State, FAMU, and Morehouse win on Homecoming Weekend

    Titans and QB Cam Ward are dedicated to two ideals: Growth and Development

    HBCU Football Week 5 Roundup: Jackson State keeps the Good Times Rolling

  • Podcast
The Windy City Word
Local

CPS samples new school lunch recipes to the ultimate taste testers: students

staffBy staffUpdated:No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram LinkedIn Tumblr Email Reddit
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp Email

Move over, mystery meat. There’s a new school menu in town.

Chicago Public Schools is taste testing incoming dishes with students, parents and community members around the city in an effort to better cater to the taste buds of students. The school district is also offering additional dishes — including fruit smoothies, chilaquiles and BBQ tofu — that could be served in this school year’s lunch line.

Advertisement

The district plans to hold 40 separate taste tests this summer.

On the menu Wednesday at the Heart of Chicago neighborhood’s Whittier Elementary: an egg and potato breakfast taco, a veggie pasta salad topped with a light dressing, and a creamy chocolate-chickpea dip.

Advertisement

“I think I loved it,” said Mason, 6, who got down from a long, blue lunch table to tell the Tribune about the food he tried. The chocolate-chickpea dip took the top prize, the pint-size taste tester added.

Across the cafeteria, Santiago wasn’t as impressed. While the dip and the breakfast taco tasted good, he said, the veggie pasta salad didn’t hit the mark. And no, it wasn’t because he doesn’t like vegetables.

“It was spicy and I don’t like pasta,” the 8-year-old said.

The friend to his left agreed. “I didn’t like the flavor, it was slimy and cold,” Aidan, 8, said.

The students, joined by a handful of community members and parents who also probed the provisions, filled in surveys to indicate how much they liked each item and what they thought about it.

The ballots confirmed what was already clear: The kids loved the chocolate-chickpea dip and liked the breakfast tacos. But the veggie pasta salad wasn’t so popular. That feedback allows the companies that provide CPS food to better cater to the child palate, said Allison Polke, director of health and wellness for Open Kitchens, a Chicago company that serves meals to CPS students.

“We work with our chef and he’s able to adjust recipes really quickly,” Polke said.

When CPS CEO Pedro Martinez asked students what he could improve on, the number one answer he heard was “food,” he told the Tribune.

Advertisement

“They want more selection. They didn’t like some of the food items,” Martinez said.

Schools have students for eight or nine hours a day and often serve breakfast, lunch and snacks, he pointed out. He wants kids to like their food.

“If you grow up in Chicago, I don’t care what neighborhood, you know what good food tastes like, you just do,” he said. “If our children are not eating and it’s not nutritious foods, they’re not going to be able to learn.”

Jason Mojica, CPS’s executive director for nutrition support services, doesn’t remember the grub being so high quality in the schools of his youth.

Maya Johnson, right, 41, of North Lawndale, tries food items at a CPS taste testing at Whittier Elementary School on July 20, 2022, while talking with Jason Mojica, left, CPS’s executive director for nutrition support services, and Marietta Rotman-Torres, CPS’s operations manager for nutrition services, who is sitting next to him. ((Jake Sheridan/Chicago Tribune))

Afternoon Briefing

Afternoon Briefing

Daily

Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.

“I wish I had some of this stuff growing up,” he said.

The food the school system serves to around 300,000 kids daily is already healthy and locally sourced, he said. But now it might be more delicious.

Advertisement

“We wanted to make a concerted effort to really engage the students in making the decisions as to what goes on the menu, versus the adults,” Mojica said.

Maya Johnson came by to try the food because her second grader son is a picky eater and sometimes won’t eat at school. Her face lit up as the chocolate-chickpea dip hit her mouth. She told the CPS administrators the kids will love it.

“If they like Nutella, and what kid doesn’t. They won’t know,” the 41-year-old North Lawndale mom said. “It’s a little sticky, but they won’t care.”

She wants to know that she can rely on CPS on days when there isn’t much time to prep lunch for her son.

“When I’m leaving him somewhere else, my expectation is that they’ll feed him and he’ll be satisfied to get through the day,” Johnson said.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Telegram Email
Previous ArticleHousing equity plan and new ethics rules for aldermen get City Council nods
Next Article James Harden agrees to a 2-year, $68 million deal to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers
staff

Related Posts

Youth curfew vote stalled in Chicago City Council’s public safety committee

Organizers, CBA Coalition pushback on proposed luxury hotel near Obama Presidential Center

New petition calls for state oversight and new leadership at Roseland Community Hospital

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Video of the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxFXtgzTu4U
Advertisement
Video of the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjfvYnUXHuI
ABOUT US

 

The Windy City Word is a weekly newspaper that projects a positive image of the community it serves. It reflects life on the Greater West Side as seen by the people who live and work here.

OUR PICKS

The AI Revolution: Is Your Job at Risk?

NNPA 2024 Convention in Baltimore Breaks New Ground

Austin native promotes peace with 3rd annual basketball game

MOST POPULAR

THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Hit-and-Run Epidemic Continues to Plague South L.A

Recognizing World Mental Health Day: How families play a crucial role in suicide prevention

Denied Care, Divided Nation: How America Fails Its Sickest Patients—and the People Fighting Back

© 2025 The Windy City Word. Site Designed by No Regret Medai.
  • Home
  • Lifestyle
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.