Background The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2000 stresses that eating fruits and vegetables of different kinds may help protect against chronic disease. Furthermore, fruits and vegetables provide the necessary vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other essentials good health depends upon. Most people are not consuming the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables daily. This includes at least 2 servings of fruits and 3 servings of vegetables. Currently, only 14% of school-aged children meet this fruit target, and 17% for vegetables (1). School salad bars have had a positive impact on the consumption of fruits and vegetables in children. When given variety at a salad bar, kids are trying new items, exploring greater variety, and increasing their daily consumption (2). Currently, 21% of public schools offer a salad bar at least once time each week. Despite this, only 20% of children enrolled in public schools are attend at a facility where a salad bar is offered. Salad bars are more commonly found in affluent public schools, where free and reduced students are less likely to be enrolled (1). Instituting school salad bars is creating a bridge between local communities and regionally grown farm products. These schools are more likely to offer green salad, raw veggies, and fresh, canned, or dried fruit (1). Schools implementing salad bars for the first time may experience a 2 to 4-fold increase in produce purchases. Salad bars are an investment in students, teaching them the skill of choice, pleasure of eating fresh foods, and the education of learning what foods look like in their raw state (3). Setting This study was conducted at Woodrow Wilson High School in the District of Columbia. They have 1,534 students enrolled in grades 9-12, with 43% receiving free and reduced lunches. Nine out of ten graduates attend college and last year were offered students were offered over $18 million in scholarships. Demographics reveal that 49% of students are black, 19% Hispanic/Latino, 21%White, 7% Asian, and 4% of other ethnicities. Salad Bars Are Not Cost Effective in the District of Columbia Public Schools Dayna Einheit Chartwells School Dining Services Objective In order to continue the use of high cost items on salad bars within the District of Columbia, the average price per salad needs to fall within the normal parameters. The variability of items served on a daily basis, and the differences in price between these items, lead to many days when the actual price to run the salad bar may become greater then the reimbursement rate. In order to determine the true average cost of maintaining a salad bar, the amount of product served plus the cost of contaminated products and waste must be determined. Method Prior to students arriving, the amount of each product prepared for service was carefully weighed. The salad bar underwent its usual lunch time procedures with no promotions or changes to the daily flow. After all students had left the cafeteria, the salad bar was broken down and all items were reweighed. Since everything was weighed prior to service, items refilled during lunch were insignificant. Anything saved for service the next day was noted, and items that were contaminated or would spoil before appearing on the menu again were marked as waste. The amount served was the difference between the amount prepared for service and the amount of waste plus reusable product. After tracking the salad bar for three days, usages were pulled from the POS system to determine how many salads were purchased and the average cost of each. The number of salads reimbursed as a free, reduced, paid, or adult were tracked along with the average hourly salary and the number of hours employees spent between preparation, service, and the breakdown of the salad bar. These statistics were used to determine the true cost of the salad bar. Bibliography 1.US Department of Agriculture and Food and Nutrition Services. School Lunch Salad Bars. April Available at: Accessed February 13, Lets Move! Salad Bars To Schools. Why Salad Bars?. Available at: 3.The Lunch Box. Healthy Tools To Help All Schools Available at: Results Salad bar usage and waste was tracked for three days. All opened items saved throughout the week and not used were discarded on Friday. The average cost per plate at the salad bar for the three day period was $2.76 not including labor or employee benefits. Conclusions The introduction of school salad bars helps to develop the pallet of students and introduce a variety of healthy options into their diets. The variety offered encourages students to try new items they otherwise may have forgone on a hot food line. Despite the health benefits and the ability to instill healthy eating habits for the future, school salad bars must be executed with caution to ensure that reimbursement rates are covering the overhead cost of this valuable student option. The use of high end items on a salad bar is not cost effective. These items are often not familiar to students therefore not incorporated into their salads large quantities, if at all. In addition, the high possibility of contamination in school settings forces barely used, pricey items to be discarded instead of saved. Surveying student’s to determine what items they would like to see on the salad bar will reduce the amount of daily waste. Having more choices students enjoy and the consistency of the same staple items daily will result in a larger variety of items chosen by students for their salad. In addition, it may draw more students to the salad bar when they see common, familiar items on the menu. Proper student and staff training will reduce contamination, and specific guidelines for when and what items can be reused vs. discarded will create uniformity in operational costs. Having this clarification and uniformity across the board will reduce the variability in salad bar costs. Allow students the freedom and variety of a salad bar, but exercise topping choices with caution. When adjusted to include the underlying costs:  Two workers are required on the salad bar line. One prepares, refills, and tears down the salad bar for a total of 7 hours daily. The other participates in working the POS system for 1.5 hours daily.  The cost of the two workers, plus their fringe benefits brings the average cost per plate to $4.51.  The average daily cost to Chartwells including product and labor is $  On average, the salad bar reimbursement for free, reduced, paid, and adult lunches is $ This creates a daily loss of $  Projected out for the entire school year, the salad bar at Woodrow Wilson High School will lose and estimated $38,  If this statistics follows for all schools, providing high cost salad bars to students causes a total loss of over $350,000.