South County High School participates in salad bar pilot

South County High School in Lorton is one of three public schools in Fairfax County to be piloting a salad bar the week of May 22-26.

Now that Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has completed the rollout of salad bars at all 141 elementary schools across the county, the school system wants to determine what the best arrangement will be for salad bars in middle and high schools, said an FCPS spokesperson. Specifically, they want to figure out whether the bars should appear in the same line as hot food selection or in a separate cafeteria line.

In a May 21 news bulletin from South County High School, principal Kambar Khoshaba informed families that a salad bar would be implemented into one of the serving lines, enabling students to choose a hot main entrée, as well as a salad. Khoshaba noted that the salad bar would not include hot vegetables or proteins like eggs and cheese but would provide squeeze bottles for ranch dressing.

FCPS is using locally sourced produce for the salad bars, said a spokesperson. In coming weeks and months, the school system will devise a plan to phase in salad bars at all middle and high schools.

The other two schools currently participating in the pilot are Mark Twain Middle School in the Rose Hill section of Alexandria and John R. Lewis High School in Springfield.