Union Voted Fourth Best For Child Nutrition

An executive chef is cooking up the lunches for students at Union High School.

Union was recently picked as the fourth best school nutrition program in the country and now the district is shooting for number one.

It's not often you see stir fry and fresh pineapple in a school cafeteria, but that's what you'll get at Union High School.

What's called the Street Market, the largest of Union High Schools several food options created by Executive Chef and former Redskin herself, Candyse Walker.

"I graduated here in 2001 and I ate school lunch maybe twice," she said.

So who better to make improvements?

There are four separate food lines here. The Asian line is next to that the Mexican line. Down the way there's a home-style line, also a pizza line.

There's also a deli. Set up like a Subway, they bake their own sandwich rolls.

Not far away from that is the Energy Bar - kind of a grab and go stop – and the original cafeteria is where you can get burgers, fries, fast foods and salads.

You can also get coffee, smoothies, lemonade and snacks in another section. There's even a Panini station.

"We're trying to teach the kids what good food tastes like," said Director of Child Nutrition, Lisa Griffin.

The district is trying to teach kids what good food tastes like, and it seems to be working. More and more students who could leave campus for lunch are opting to stay, and they seem to like it.

Student and parent opinions factored in to the ratings that ranked Union fourth best of the top 100 school cafeterias in the country. No other Oklahoma school even made the list.

Union placed fourth in the survey of 4,000 school cafeterias.

The high ranking factors in spending, variety, healthy choices, and student and parent feedback.