NORWICH – Your typical Norwich City School District Board of Education meeting – which can run anywhere from one and a half to three hours or more – is usually a blend of consent agendas, the approval of bills, communications, public comment, action items and sometimes even entertainment.

Monday night, however, it was all about the food.

Approximately 30 students, educators and parents joined the district’s board of education for a brief presentation on healthier options in the lunchroom by Food Service Program Director Sue Ryan, followed by an awards ceremony recognizing a handful of students for their nutritional recipes – as part of a district-wide recipe contest – and a serving of some of the best its cafeterias have to offer.

The district’s food program, said Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan, is one that’s been revamped over the past few years. Ryan, he added, has done a “fantastic job” during that time, and the superintendent called her efforts “impressive, to say the least.”

Gone, according to Ryan, are many of the processed foods formerly offered to students – such as artificially flavored chicken tenders and patties – replaced by more fresh produce, such as bananas, grapes, peppers, radishes, oranges and more. Other offerings, like hummus and yogurt, have also been popular with many students.

“We’re trying to do a whole food revolution here ... kids are loving the changes,” added Ryan. “We’re really going back to homemade food and I think the kids are getting more and more excited about it.”

And while fresh foods may come at a higher cost in regards to the district’s food budget, admitted the lunch director, such costs are offset in part by cutting unhealthy, processed foods from the menu.