Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is cooking up changes for next year’s school menus, and students got a first taste at the second annual FCPS Student Food Show last Thursday (Feb. 27).
Held at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles in Chantilly, the event invited hundreds of students — from elementary through high school — to sample and rate more than two dozen potential meal options, helping determine what could land on breakfast and lunch menus across the district’s 199 schools next year.
The first food show was held in November 2023, bringing together more than 200 FCPS students to sample and provide feedback on various breakfast and lunch recipes.
Among the highlights this year was the debut of “Fairfax Sauce,” a new, top-secret condiment developed exclusively for FCPS cafeterias. Other dishes up for review included breakfast tacos with veggie sausage, a Thai chili bowl, Hawaiian hot honey beef sliders and pumpkin pie applesauce.
FCPS Executive Director of Food and Nutrition Services Shaun Sawko, the driving force behind the event, says the food show helps school meals keep up with changing student tastes.
“We’re constantly engaging our students so that we can change with them as they change,” he told FFXnow. “Because what they liked two years ago, three years ago, four years ago may not be what’s trending now. So, this allows us to really engage with our students, see what trends they want to have, but then also have a lot of diverse food options for them, knowing that it’s student-approved and student-focused.”
That feedback comes from surveys completed on iPads stationed throughout the room after students taste each dish. The responses help FCPS refine recipes before adding them to cafeteria menus, says Sawko.
For elementary school students Fabiana and Rosie, the taco pizza and sliders were standouts.
“I didn’t like the masala,” one admitted. But overall, she rated the food show an 8.5 out of 10.
One of their biggest suggestions? Cool it on the spice.
“Some dishes have a lot of spice,” Rosie said. “Not too spicy, but just a lot of it.”
In addition to new menu concepts from food manufacturers, this year’s event featured recipes developed by FCPS cafeteria staff and an in-house executive chef, who created the Fairfax Sauce and homemade mac and cheese.
The event was moved from November to February so students won’t have to wait as long to see menu changes in the next school year, Sawko said. Some of last year’s most popular dishes made it onto menus this school year, and the goal is to continue refining the process.
“[The survey] asks not only do you like the foods… but then any additional feedback,” he said. “So, some students might say, ‘This is too spicy. This isn’t spicy enough.’ So, we take that feedback and we recognize that it’s extremely crucial, and we adapt those recipes to make sure that one, we can execute it at our schools … Any feedback that the students might have, especially if we’re noticing a pattern of that feedback, then we’re able to adapt with that feedback too.”
With a diverse selection of dishes reflecting Fairfax County’s multicultural student population, Sawko says he hopes to keep refining its menus to better serve the 180,000-plus students who attend FCPS.
“We’re such a diverse county,” he said. “It’s important for us to showcase that diversity within our food population as well.”
