When students in Aurora Public Schools sit down to eat their school breakfast or lunch, it's important that their foods are both nutritious and delicious. To determine whether students will like certain foods, APS just hosted its 6th annual "Meet & Eat" food show. This is a fun opportunity for all APS students and their families to come try new foods and then vote for their favorites.
“This is a huge community event for us,” said James Lesley, Assistant Director of Support & Compliance with APS Nutrition Services. “It’s important for them to show up because then they can have their voice heard. They can vote for the things they want to see on the menu and try new things.”
The event was free and featured foods from 50 vendors. At this year's event, students and families tried dozens of foods including beef and vegetable dumplings in a Korean barbecue sauce and Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. Vendors also offered several specialty pizzas like chicken bacon ranch, breakfast scramble and a Detroit-style pizza. The top five vote-getters will appear on APS school lunch menus later this school year.
“Giving our students a voice is super important,” Lesley said. “They’re the ones who eat this food every day. So we want to make sure that we are giving them things that they’re interested in and will keep them coming back. Especially now that we have free meals for all in the state of Colorado, we want to make sure that all of our students are eating breakfast, lunch and after school meals with us.”
For the "meet" portion of the Meet & Eat, students and families were excited to meet Miles, the Denver Broncos mascot who encourages students to eat and play healthy. They also had a surprise visit from Food Network celebrity chef Guy Fieri – or perhaps an APS staff member who just happened to look like Guy Fieri. Either way, earning a free trip to Guy’s signature “Flavortown” was certainly a treat!