Lettuce Talk About Salad Bars

Survey Results: 

• After implementing salad bars, 40% report offering more fruits and vegetables. 
• 77% report buying more fruits and vegetables.

Installing a salad bar is an effective way to meet USDA federal meal standards that require students to take at least half a cup of fruit or vegetables at breakfast and lunch. Additionally, over the course of a week, schools must serve five vegetable subgroups at lunch. This ensures students are offered a variety of vegetables. 

Examples of foods in the vegetable subgroups include:

• Dark green: broccoli, collard greens, green peppers
• Red/orange: carrots, butternut squash, tomatoes
• Beans, peas, and lentils: black beans, chickpeas, edamame
• Starchy: corn, potatoes, plantains
• Other: cucumber, cauliflower, radishes

Survey Results: 

• 33% report that students ate more fruits and vegetables after a salad bar was installed.
• 76% report that student acceptability of school meals increased.

Students can select the foods they want to eat. Our Chef Ann Foundation salad bar motto is “Take what you want, eat what you take.” In addition to featuring fruits and vegetables, schools can include whole grains (such as farro and quinoa) and healthy proteins (such as lentils, beans, cheese, and grilled chicken) so students can create a complete meal by selecting a variety of foods from the salad bar. 

Salad Bar Spotlight: Cheney School District’s salad bar (Washington, 2025 grantee) features scratch-made sides, including fresh-cut fruits and vegetables to complement the main entree on the lunch line. 

Cheney offers sweet tri-baked beans, scratch-made potato salad, tri-colored sweet peppers, and whole kernel sweet corn. In-house, the district prepares fresh watermelon, Washington apples, red onion, tomatoes, cauliflower, and mini cucumber slices as additional sides and toppings. Students can top their salads with house-made ranch and Italian dressings. 

Survey Results: 

• 33% report that their salad bars helped decrease food waste.
• 74% report that most items on their salad bars were served in bulk. This means more schools were featuring fresh foods that weren’t prepackaged in plastic; think fresh sliced carrots instead of small bags of mini carrots.

Foods are placed in separate, washable, reusable compartments along the salad bar, so schools don’t generate plastic waste from single-use disposable salad containers. They can also serve whole and chopped produce instead of pre-packaged vegetables. 

Instead of having staff prepare dozens or hundreds of pre-packaged salads, they can prepare each component and place it in a separate compartment on the salad bar. School food professionals save time because they don’t have to assemble each salad individually, allowing them to allocate more time to scratch-cook other menu items.

Salad Bar Spotlight: Odyssey Charter Schools (California, 2025 grantee) offers fresh produce daily on the salad bar, and offers flavors from around the world each week on the hot food line. Their scratch-made orange chicken entree, pictured left, is paired with a fresh salad bar spread featuring pineapple, grapes, baby corn, edamame, and croutons.

"Students love the fresh salad bar. Students did not want to grab the veggies that were packaged in bags. When they are unwrapped and fresh, students really prefer them, and they fly off the salad bar." - Melissa Herrera, Director of Odyssey Charter Schools

Survey Results: 

• 61% report buying more locally grown fruits and vegetables after the salad bar was implemented.
• 39% report an increase in the availability of culturally relevant foods served at their district/school after adding a salad bar.

Scratch cooking allows schools to support their communities and protect the environment. When schools cook meals from scratch, they can buy whole ingredients from local producers, resulting in fresher, tastier dishes, more local jobs, and more prosperous communities. Purchasing whole ingredients from local producers empowers schools to choose organic, sustainably produced ingredients and foods, lowering their carbon footprint and helping fight climate change.

Salad bars can help schools transition to more scratch cooking. Cooking with fresh, whole products requires upskilling the workforce; instead of opening boxes and taking out prepackaged vegetables, school food professionals learn knife skills for chopping, dicing, and slicing when preparing fruits and vegetables for the salad bar. These foundational culinary skills are vital when transitioning from heat-and-serve operations to scratch cooking. 

Salad Bar Spotlight: Bainbridge Island School District’s salad bar (Washington, 2025 grantee) features locally grown hydroponic greens, fresh fruit and vegetables, and a lentil-and-squash salad with homemade vinaigrette.