Flaxseed Finding its Way into School Meals

The health benefits of flaxseed are gradually filtering down to the places that need it the most – schools and colleges.

With child obesity rates soaring increasingly higher, it is pleasing to learn of schools taking more of an active role in providing healthier meal options to their pupils.

Chartwells School Dining Services, whose motto is “Eat, Learn Live” aim to provide over 6,000 elementary, middle and high schools across the US with high quality, nutritious fresh food that kids can enjoy.

Their new initiative has been the introduction of a tasty and healthy pizza, with a white whole wheat crust, using whole wheat flour, olive oil and flaxseed.

The feedback from students has been extremely positive at the Chartwells schools in the New England area with a strong recommendation to introduce the healthy pizza further afield.

Chartwells always looks to be proactive with nutrition when we develop a new product, said Kim Salahie, Chartwells Director of Culinary Development. Our new crust allowed us to deliver increased benefits such as lower sodium, more whole grains and healthy fats like flaxseed and olive oil.

While there is still a long way to go in educating and changing the eating habits of our children, these small breakthroughs in recognizing particularly healthy food sources, such as flaxseed, can only be a step in the right direction.