Peanuts in Schools

Jul 24, 2023

Episode Description

PB&Js have been a school lunch staple for generations—and at most schools they still are. The star ingredient, peanut butter, is nutritious, affordable, shelf stable and tasty. But food allergy concerns are a barrier to schools using more peanuts. Tapping into our recent Summer School Nutrition Summit, we’ll discuss the latest trends, what's on the minds of school nutrition leaders and how schools can serve peanuts while keeping students with allergies safe. We’ll hear from Amy Carroll of Lee County, FL Schools whose district brought peanut butter back to the menu after almost 20 years, Marlon Gordon of Nxt Gen Network, child nutrition chef Rebecca Polson, Leslie Wagner of Southern Peanut Growers and Texas peanut grower Lexi Floyd.

PB&Js have been a school lunch staple for generations—and at most schools they still are. Tapping into the National Peanut Board’s recent Summer School Nutrition Summit, we discuss the latest trends and how schools can serve peanuts while keeping students with allergies safe. In this episode of The Peanut Podcast, we hear from Amy Carroll of Lee County, FL Schools, Marlon Gordon of Nxt Gen Network, child nutrition chef Rebecca Polson, Leslie Wagner of Southern Peanut Growers and Texas peanut grower Lexi Floyd.

Bringing Peanut Butter Back to the Menu

Amy Carroll is a registered dietitian with the School District of Lee County in Fort Myers, Florida. When Carroll started in Lee County in 2017, peanuts had been off the district’s menus since 2004. A spark of inspiration came on a visit to a large high school in a nearby county. “They had golf carts at lunch that had [Smuckers] Uncrustables [frozen PB&J] sandwiches, oranges and milk. The students were lined up for these golf carts. I told my director, ‘We're missing lots of customers.’ And she agreed. We said OK, we need to bring peanut butter back. But we immediately knew that we were going to face a lot of push back and we didn't know how to overcome it so, we shelved that idea.”

Then a series of “nightmare” challenges came, including COVID, losing their food distributor, climbing prices, food shortages and more. Carroll recalled, “I thought if we ever want to bring peanut butter back, now's the time. We can present it in such a way that we need to get food for our students and peanut butter is a commodity that's available. And it credits as a meat alternative [in federal child nutrition programs]. I framed it as we need to bring peanut butter back; there's no choice.”

With 84 schools that serve approximately 85,000 meals a day, Carroll and her team knew a standardized and unified approach was necessary. They rallied all the stakeholders including nursing, administration, legal, parents, students, custodial operations and others. Everyone needed to be on board and Carroll had to be prepared with research and information.

She connected with NPB’s Sherry Coleman Collins and “I read every study out there in preparation for this meeting,” said Carroll. “Of our 100,000-student population, 1% is allergic to peanuts, and we have another 4.3% allergic to other things. It didn't make sense for such a high-participation item like peanut butter that we were not serving it because of 1% of our student population. When instead we could figure out how we could serve it safely and provide another item that the students liked.” Carroll credits the Epi Pens for Schools program for helping to stock non-student specific epinephrine as key part of the preparation plan.

“On February 22, 2022, we served peanut butter again for the first time in our district and 18 years,” said Carroll. “And now it's July of 2023 and I'm happy to say that we have not had one negative reaction. Thank goodness. I know it's a possibility. But we have not had any negative reactions and I haven't heard one negative word. All I've heard is thank goodness peanut butter is back.”

What Works in Communication & Marketing for Schools

Communication was a key part of Carroll’s strategy to bring peanut butter back to the menu. Lee County partnered with Marlon Gordon of Nxt Gen Media to create tools and resources to get the word out to the community. Gordon has worked both on the operating and industry side of the food service sector. “We started the business with a product called First Taste TV, which is like Home Shopping Network meets Food Network but geared towards child nutrition professionals. Now we do a ton of videos, podcasts and publications and we work inside and outside of K12.”

School nutrition and communications has changed significantly over the past few years, particularly in social media. “Social media has gotten huge. But even when talking social media, I think video is one of the best ways to engage and is what a lot of districts are now starting to look for,” said Gordon. “Kids are on YouTube all day long. My kids are on YouTube consistently. It drives me crazy, but that's just where they are. And if you're going to market your program, you have to be where the kids are. So, whether you're on YouTube or Vimeo or using social media to promote your brand or your product, video I feel like is a really good way to engage with the audience. And I see a lot more districts doing it.”

Beyond the PB&J: Versatile Ways to Use Peanuts in Schools

Chef Rebecca Polson has nearly 10 years of experience as a chef working in public schools all over the country. She currently is a K-12 culinary trainer and chef consultant working with districts, manufacturers and non-profits to bring culturally relevant, chef-driven healthy meals to schools.

According to Polson, school breakfast is often an overlooked meal opportunity and one with a lot of benefits for peanuts. “I love peanuts at breakfast, especially, as I present all across the country and help people with recipe development and menu planning,” said Polson. “There's a lot of room for growth there and incorporating peanuts is a great way to do that. They have good fat, protein (7 grams) and full of fiber (2 grams). It helps students stay fuller longer up until lunchtime but also peanuts are a student favorite. Incorporating them into breakfast can help increase participation as well. Some of my favorite ways to incorporate peanuts and peanut butter into breakfast are smoothies, as a topping on pancakes or waffles mixed into oatmeal.”

A Peanut Industry Perspective on Schools

Leslie Wagner is executive director of Southern Peanut Growers, which has done regional and state marketing for peanut farmers in the Southeast since 1980. Wagner has been working for peanuts since 1994 and currently works primarily for growers in Georgia and Mississippi.

“In my experience, school nutrition workers are very passionate about how important feeding kids is to those kids’ ultimate success in school,” said Wagner. “We focus on supporting them in that endeavor in a few ways. We work to connect them to specific products that they're looking for. Lately, that's been mostly requests for individual serving size squeeze bags of peanut butter for the portability and ease of use. We also offer promotional kits to help school nutrition provide the education component that they're actually required to provide. But also, to help them create the fun components that they think helps connect the kids to their program.”

Connecting the Grower to School Nutrition

Lexi Floyd and her family live in Texas where they grow both conventional and organic cotton and peanuts. She attended and presented at the Summer School Nutrition Summit. “Going into it, I thought it's going to be hard to convince them why we need peanuts back in schools or why this is important,” said Floyd. “I left there thinking they're our biggest advocates. They're here because they want to help us; they want to do these things. And that's a very important relationship. Just listening to how many millions of kids are being fed in the United States by our school system. If we just keep going the way we're going and we stay with building this relationship, I think that we can only get stronger in terms of getting peanuts back into more schools.”

For more information about serving peanuts in K12, visit PeanutsinSchools.org.

Amy Carroll, The School District of Lee County

Amy Carroll, MBA, is a Registered Dietitian currently employed as the Coordinator of Special Projects & Student Wellness in the Food & Nutrition Services Department for The School District of Lee County in Fort Myers, FL. She has been with the district for six years and holds a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition & Dietetics from Georgia Southern University, completed her dietetic internship at Vanderbilt University, and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Brenau University. Amy is a founding member of The Healthy Living Collaboration- a multi-tiered collaboration between Food & Nutrition Services, Curriculum & Innovation, Environmental Education, Career & Technical Education, and community partners- the goal of which is to improve overall health and increase food security for the School District of Lee County students and families. Amy serves as the West Florida Chair for The P.O.W.E.R. Buying Group purchasing cooperative. She is a member of ACDA, SNA, and FSNA where she is a representative of the House of Delegates and serves on the Professional Development Committee. Amy loves working in school nutrition as it provides such a great opportunity to influence the lives of children, and offers tools to help them establish lifelong, healthy eating habits.

Marlon Gordon, NxtGen Network

Marlon has an extensive background in the food service sector - working in both the operator and industry sides. From his IT origins to his roles in sales, and now as an entrepreneur, his personality brings levity and positivity to the team. He is passionate about creating partnerships with those in Child Nutrition, Hospitality, and Food & Beverage to build a network of like-minded disrupters and future builders. Marlon is always ready to propel us into new ideas, and always knows just the person to include. As an innovator and thought leader, Marlon has been the idea man behind many of our projects including First Taste TV, Next Up, Ignite, Next UP podcast, and Indulge. Marlon is a visionary and a team builder that is fueled by a faith that helps him do things others think are impossible.

Rebecca Polson, CC, SNS

Rebecca Polson CC, SNS, has nearly 10 years of experience as a chef working in public schools all over the country. She currently is a K-12 culinary trainer and chef consultant working with districts, manufacturers, and non-profits to bring scratch-made, culturally relevant, chef-driven healthy meals to schools. She began her career in the foodservice industry in 2011 after graduating from Johnson & Wales University with a culinary arts degree. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in merchandising and business from Florida State University. Rebecca has experience in several areas of the industry, including working as a line cook at James Beard award-winning Bern’s Steakhouse, and running a test kitchen as research and development chef for restaurant chain, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s and The Brass Tap. Rebecca joined The Culinary Institute of America’s Healthy Kids Collaborative in 2015 and continues to be an active member. She has worked with the School Nutrition Association and School Nutrition Magazine for four years as a monthly contributor to the Food Focus section of the magazine. Her unboxing videos and quick recipe tutorials using Minneapolis Public Schools meal boxes garnered national attention throughout the pandemic. When she’s not in the kitchen creating healthy recipes, Rebecca enjoys working out, posting to social media @ChefRebeccaK12, traveling, exploring her new hometown, and spending time with her dog, Roxy.

Leslie Wagner, Southern Peanut Growers

Leslie Wagner is the executive director of the Southern Peanut Growers, representing peanut farmers in Georgia and Mississippi. Georgia alone grows more than half the U.S. crop of peanuts each year. Leslie is passionate about sharing her love for peanuts and peanut butter – and how they fit into a healthy diet. She is proud to represent peanut farmers whose life work is to steward the land and provide a safe and affordable food to feed the world. She is especially proud to work in an industry that works to solve problems - from food allergy to severe, acute malnutrition around the world.

Lexi Floyd, Texas Peanut Grower

Lexi Floyd is a West Coast transplant to the South Plains of West Texas. She and her husband farm both conventional and organic cotton and peanuts, with a side hustle of show steers. She finds happiness in Quickbooks and yoga pants, all while attempting to raise three strong willed girls.