Winner's Circle Program

In 2002-03, our schools implemented the Winner's Circle Program to help customers identify great-tasting, healthy menu items at school. The program applauds all the healthy choices available in the school cafeterias.

The healthy and tasty menus are identified by a logo with a purple star and gold fork. The logo can be found in school cafeterias and on the Child Nutrition Web Site. A Registered Dietitian (RD) has done a nutritional analysis of the menus. The program emphasizes nutritional guidelines that offer disease prevention for the majority of chronic diseases. These guidelines build on fruits, vegetables, grains and calcium. The nutritional analysis ensures that the fat and sodium are within the recommended guidelines. Winner's Circle menus must include at least two servings of fruits or vegetables, one serving of grain or beans, 245 mg of calcium, and have a maximum of 30% of calories from fat and 1500 mg sodium.

The Winner's Circle is a healthy dining program that is being used in restaurants, cafeterias and other eating environments across the state. Therefore, you may have already seen it in local restaurants.

Please take an active role in what your child eats at school and when dining out. Encourage him or her to select foods labeled with the Winner's Circle logo. If you have any questions about the Winner's Circle Program or any other issues regarding school meals, please contact one of our registered dietitians.