Despite the cooling weather, students at Scituate High School have no problem slurping down a cold snack chosen from the growing menu in the cafeteria. Early in the fall term, a large stainless steel box appeared behind the snack bar. Three spouts for soft-serve frozen yogurt protrude from one side. The snack menu written in dry-erase marker now includes “Frozen Yogurt,” but the implementation of new, healthier lunch and snack options is a permanent addition to the SHS cafeteria.
These flavors come in a one-size-fits-all styrofoam cup at a price of $1.50. As popular frozen yogurt shops like Pinkberry and Red Mango move to the South Shore, and as Creyo recently finds its niche in the new Front Street shop, SHS joined the trend in offering healthful dessert options to its daily customers.
Students can now choose between three flavor options: vanilla, another flavor students can vote on, and a swirl of the two. Previously, chocolate was the second flavor option. Recently, however, students were able to scan a barcode posted in the cafeteria with their smartphones and enter an online survey to vote on a new flavor option. By popular demand, black raspberry replaced chocolate. SHS cafeteria workers recognized that the black raspberry was not so popular after all, and plan on returning to chocolate. Scituate Food Services Manager, Cathy Espervary and her staff hope to see more flavor options available for students to vote on.
While the fro-yo dessert option is in its earliest stages, some students already have high expectations for what the cafeteria’s frozen yogurt should become. Junior Alanah Lopes said of the tasty frozen snack, “It’s good, but it’s not my first choice. If they had more flavors it would be better.” Other students have yet to realize frozen yogurt is on the menu. Lopes said that the first time she tried the chocolate fro-yo, she just got in line for a normal snack and noticed the subtle change in snack options.
Espervary warned that because lunches are time-restricted, students can’t expect too much change to the flavor and topping options all at once. “The twist is our most popular flavor, so we’ll continue to offer that. The problem with toppings is time. We can’t have a long line at a topping bar. We can’t make this into a Creyo or a Sweet Frog. Maybe in the future we will offer a one topping option,” Esperary said.
To ensure students are eating healthier, the cafeteria staff is now requiring that students purchase the snack in the last ten minutes of lunch. This measure enables students to purchase full meals for their regular lunch, and then add the yogurt in as an additional snack, giving them a more balanced diet. Health experts from fitday.com agree that frozen yogurt is a healthier option than ice-cream because “ice cream contains a lot of sugar and salt to add taste to the final product, [but] frozen yogurt allows for the substitution of ingredients like honey or agave nectar in place of sugar.”
While the frozen yogurt machine and the new procedures it brings to the lunch room are still in their earliest stages, they are yet another step in SHS’s effort towards becoming a healthier, more nutritionally-aware school community.