Miami-Dade County Public Schools to offer new, free food options
MIAMI - It's Back-To-School and that also means back to the lunch room, as breakfast and lunch are free to all Miami-Dade public school students again this year.
Having not to pack a lunch for your children when you're in a crunch can be very helpful, and this year there are some new menu items.
"We have a few new items we are featuring this year as items for lunch. We have a beef patty on a wheat bun. This clean label item has five ingredients, ground beef, sea salt, pepper onion and garlic," said MDCPS Food Nutrition Officer Angie Kasselakis.
The students approved all the new items through taste tests that were conducted throughout the school year.
"So they were a big part of selecting all the new menu items," said Kasselakis.
Meantime, hundreds of Miami-Dade School based nurses and health-care professionals attended an annual health-connect conference with The Children's trust.
"Today is a great day, we have 400 mental health professionals and social workers. The children's trust funds 150 clinics in schools. So, while teachers are getting ready for school to start and parents are excited but they also need the services for health," said James Haj, Children's Trust President and CEO.
One nurse spoke with CBS News Miami's Najahe Sherman, and talked about the importance of the event.
"For me, this is always vital because we network, we can see other people who work within different agencies, we get to learn from each other and learn from our experiences," said Eduardo Barrios a registered nurse.
The nurses and health care professionals were brought up to speed with the latest training.
This is part of a two day event, an important resource for students and families this upcoming school year.