School Nutrition Services

When students arrive to school in most cases, school nutrition workers are the first contact children have for the day. Our GCS School Nutrition team provides delicious, healthy, nutritious meals with overall high quality service so our students can learn and grow. 

Who are We?

Guilford County Schools Nutrition staff are committed to providing delicious and healthy meals, both breakfast and lunch, to all children. All our meals meet the USDA Dietary Guidelines  that includes adequate servings of protein, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and milk. Each year our food service team provides thousands of breakfast and lunch meals.

Food Safety in Our Schools

Our school cafeterias are regularly inspected by our local health department. Please see our website for the latest sanitation scores for your child's school lunchroom.

Offer vs. Serve

To ensure students can make the most of their lunch and choose the foods they want to eat, GCS is offering the offer vs serve option (OVS).  OVS is a meal option that allows students to select at least three of the five components - meat or meat alternative, fruit, vegetable, grain and milk - and one must be a fruit or a vegetable serving in order to be charged the combination meal price. Students must take at least ½ cup serving of the fruit or vegetable component or a combination of ¼ cup fruit and ¼ cup vegetables. Students may take two ¼ cup servings of the same item a fruit or vegetable to meet the serving requirements.   Additional fruits and vegetables are provided daily. Students can have unlimited fruits and vegetables are available, with the exception to white potato products (French Fries or Mashed Potatoes).

At breakfast, students must take at least three of the four items offered, and only one must be a fruit or vegetable serving. Some food items may contain more than one item. For example, breakfast pizza is grain sub and grain. 

Students that take less than the required meal components are asked to pay the a la carte price for those items because the U.S. Department of Agriculture will not subsidize the cost of a incomplete meal.

 Check out our Facebook Page! 

Discrimination Prohibited

The United States Department of Agriculture prohibits discrimination in the school meals programs it funds.

Click here to file a complaint about Discrimination in the School Nutrition Program