For the first time in the history of the USDA school meals programs, success in feeding kids (adolescents especially) is regarded as hip. K-12 nutrition providers, from the people who grow the food to those who serve it, are riding the national tide of food service trends that emphasize vivid, authentic flavor. “Cool ideas are going mainstream really quickly,” observes School Meals that Rock’s Dayle Hayes, who joins us today to review recent innovations—Asian street foods, mac-and-cheese bars, shaker salads, and much more—that we’ll be seeing all over in 2016.

Photo courtesy of Whitson’s School Nutrition

“Young people… are little foodies in a lot of ways. They have expectations because of what they’re experiencing in the world at large. They have an expectation of flavors.”

–Dayle  Hayes on Inside School Food