Child Care, School Lunch Provider Adds Organic Option
Quality Catering for Kids Also Eliminates Trans Fats from Main Menus
Jan. 20, 2011 -- Organic foods are now on the menu at Quality Catering for Kids, which provides nutritious hot lunches and other meals for child care centers and private schools in northern Illinois and southeastern Wisconsin.
“We’ve always focused on nutrition, so it was natural for us to add organic items when customers started asking us for them,” said Jim Scharnell, president of Quality Catering for Kids.
Along with the addition of organic items, each day’s main menu offered by Quality Catering for Kids are now totally free of trans fats. That includes each day’s hot lunch primary menu as well as breakfasts and snacks.
The new menus include organic foods such as fruits, vegetables, pastas, grains and cheese, Scharnell said. “Every day, some component of the meal will be organic,” he said.
A limited vegetarian option also is now available from Quality Catering for Kids. Those menus include items such as cheese ravioli, red beans and rice, vegetarian chili, veggie burgers and cheese sandwiches.
Childhood nutrition has been the focus of Quality Catering for Kids since its founding in 1980.
“Our company’s mission is to foster healthy eating habits in young people – habits that will contribute to better health throughout their lives,” Scharnell said. “Based on that mission, we are eliminating foods with trans fats from our main menus.”
Those foods are being replaced with products that do not contain trans fats and, thus, are healthier for children.
Trans fats, also known as trans fatty acids, may contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease by raising the amount of bad cholesterol and lowering the amount of good cholesterol in the body, according to Nancy Lambert, a Registered Dietary Technician. (Read her column on good fats vs. bad fats.)
For more information, call 1-888-356-7513 X 113.
Quality Catering for Kids is committed to childhood nutrition. Its menus are developed with the guidance of an on-staff Registered Dietetic Technician. Cooked foods are prepared in a manner that retains nutritional value and flavor. Because its menus are “kid-tested,” a higher percentage of each Quality Catering for Kids’ meals is consumed, adding to the nutrition value. Quality Catering for Kids is the only such company in the Midwest to have its kitchens food handling USDA-Certified. The company is on the web at www.qualitycateringforkids.com. Its offices are in Lake Villa, Illinois and Brookfield, Wisconsin.