{"id":14519,"date":"2024-11-19T18:58:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=14519"},"modified":"2024-11-19T19:02:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T19:02:48","slug":"in-local-school-lunchrooms-a-surprise-smash-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/11\/19\/in-local-school-lunchrooms-a-surprise-smash-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"In local school lunchrooms, a surprise smash hit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Move over sloppy joes, there\u2019s a new lunchroom superstar in Durham Public Schools: the vegan \u201cchicken\u201d nugget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DPS students are devouring the soy protein-based item \u2014\u00a0among the new additions to the district\u2019s school lunch menu \u2014 at unforeseen rates, according to James \u201cJim\u201d Keaten, DPS\u2019 director of school nutrition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The revelation came to light last week at a joint meeting between the Durham County Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education during a nutrition update presentation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe never in our wildest dreams could imagine the number of kids that were going to take those vegan nuggets,\u201d Keaten explained to the local leaders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe were flying through those things so fast that we couldn\u2019t even keep them in stock,\u201d Keaten added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just how many of these nuggets are DPS kids plowing through?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Short answer: a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DPS dishes out 1,500 servings of the vegan nuggets per month. At the recommended four nuggets per serving, that\u2019s 6,000 nuggets and almost 300 pounds a month. If each oblong nugget is approximately 2 inches (sizes vary) that\u2019s about 12,000 inches of nugget, or 1,000 feet. A single-file line of the vegan nuggets served per month would be more than nine-tenths as tall as the Eiffel Tower or taller than four Duke Chapels stacked on top of one another.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The rapid consumption has meant that the district has not been able to provide the vegan nuggets at some schools. One could even say that there haven\u2019t been <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">enuggh.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prior to this year, DPS was serving none of these nuggets. The plant-based addition is part of DPS\u2019s new nutrition program, which focuses on locally sourced food without artificial colors and flavors, among other priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The vegan nuggets, described as\u00a0 \u201clocal\u201d in the district\u2019s presentation, are the Dr. Praeger\u2019s brand available in grocery stores around the U.S. The district sources the nuggets from the Raleigh branch of Sysco, a multinational food distribution company.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other popular new menu items include chicken and vegetable dumplings, spicy chorizo pork pasta, and \u201cbuild your own\u201d bars in DPS high schools, according to Keaten.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alongside menu updates, the district has adopted the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), a federal program in which all students, regardless of family income, can access free breakfast and lunch at school. At the meeting, board member Natalie Beyer raised concerns that CEP, which has increased the number of student meals in Durham, might be rolled back under the new administration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With CEP, the district found that in the first 10 days of school, daily breakfast consumption increased by 918 meals and daily lunch increased by 2,114 meals since last year, on average.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And among those meals, a star was born.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Golden brown, crispy, and slightly more chewy than its non-vegan counterpart, the vegan nugget has stolen the DPS lunchroom show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pictured above: Vegan &#8220;chicken&#8221; nuggets, shown here in a Durham Public Schools presentation, are a runaway hit in local school cafeterias.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Move over sloppy joes, there\u2019s a new lunchroom superstar in Durham Public Schools: the vegan \u201cchicken\u201d nugget.\u00a0 DPS students are devouring the soy protein-based item&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":14524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[269],"class_list":["post-14519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-the-9th-street-journal","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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