Pop-Up Restaurant Makes Kids Hungry For School Lunch

How do you make sure the food children should eat is the same as the food they want to eat?

Hiland Dairy’s very own Chef Sharon Schaefer did just that when she brought her pop-up restaurant to the Schuyler, Nebraska Middle School.

The lunchtime menu featured items that you might normally find in a restaurant – but was also appealing to children and met the nutritional standards required by schools. The lunch included chicken burritos and cilantro lime rice bowls, with made-from-scratch chili spice on the fresh chicken and a black bean, corn and red pepper salsa.

And what about dessert?

Chef Schaefer modified an adult favorite – banana pudding – to make a kid-friendly version by topping it with vanilla wafer cookies as a garnish, rather than using them as a traditional internal layer. Her recipe also incorporated delicious Hiland Dairy Vanilla Yogurt to increase the protein and reduce the sugar, but still keep the WOW factor!

The pop-up restaurant is part of the School Nutrition Services Program that Hiland Dairy offers to schools.

As part of that program, Schaefer works with 65 school districts and leads programs about how to fit nutrition into school curriculum. She also provides support and training to school nutrition professionals.

Be on the lookout. Chef Schaefer may appear soon at a school near you!