Resources: For Schools
Software that helps school districts serve the most nourishing, delicious food possible to the students in their care.
What is Green Onion?
Green Onion is a free online tool for school nutrition professionals and purchasing cooperatives to analyze their products for ingredients of concern based on the Ingredient Guide for Better School Food Purchasing.
Users can find better product alternatives and track their progress towards eliminating Unwanted Ingredients and limiting Watch Ingredients on an individualized dashboard.
How to use Green Onion
Check out the Ingredient Guide for Better School Food Purchasing for a description of the Unwanted and Watch Ingredients Green Onion identifies in products
To create your free School District or Purchasing Cooperative account, email Megan Flynn, Nutrition Program Manager at mflynn@ltfoundation.org with the below information:
First & Last Name
State
District/Purchasing Cooperative Name
Email
Phone Number
Send the Green Onion Product Upload Template to your distributors (primary, bread, dairy, produce, etc. if applicable) and request a report of your products in this format. Green Onion needs as many GTIN (14 digit)/UPC (12 digit) codes as possible to match your products with Green Onion’s database. Email Megan this completed report.
Schedule a Green Onion training call.
Review your dashboard, at a glance learning which products contain ingredients of concern
Review replacement products suggested by Life Time Foundation’s Registered Dietitians and fellow school food pros
Choose your replacements, and track progress toward school meals with ingredients we know and trust, following the latest scientific research.
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To equip our food service directors and menu planners with the most accurate information and to ensure we are representing you accurately in Green Onion, we invite you to share your product data directly with us through our GDSN initiative. Learn more and complete the Trading Partner Form at our 1WorldSync site.
If you don’t participate in a data pool or have a Company GLN, please email your product data to mflynn@ltfoundation.org.
Once you publish your K-12 product data to us, you’re welcome to create a free manufacturer-specific Green Onion account, allowing you to review ingredient of concern data on a personalized dashboard.
FAQ
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An Admin can make edits in their school district or purchasing cooperative account. A User is a view-only account.
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Select Manage My Products from the list on the left. Under the Actions column, move the slider to turn a product on or off.
What are users saying?
“Green Onion is one of the most practical, easy to use, impactful tools for improving school food that I have seen in my 36 year career in school nutrition. Accessible online, accurate due to constant updating, and offered free of charge will enable everyone to use this tool no matter what size district they operate in. Being able to quickly and efficiently evaluate products in the school marketplace is beneficial but offering immediate alternatives to those products that contain less harmful ingredients makes Green Onion unique and an indispensable tool for every school nutrition program across the country. Thank you Life Time Foundation for the long term, sustainable contribution this tool will have in continuing to improve the health and well-being of all students.” - Dr. Katie Wilson, SNS, PhD, Executive Director, Urban School Food Alliance
“Green Onion has made searching for clean label products so much easier. Personally, I’m excited for how this will help all districts have continuity in sourcing clean label products.” - Lauren Marlow, MS, RD, LD, Manager of Nutrition Cincinnati Public Schools
“Thanks to the Green Onion database, I was able to find quality, clean label commodity substitutes for some of my students’ favorites without sacrificing flavor, quality, or price. Using the database saved me time and frustration in searching for alternates! - Ally Mrachek, Former Child Nutrition Director, Fayetteville Public Schools
Between tight budgets and the stranglehold of big corporations on the school food supply, the system seems stacked against healthy options. Read this recent article featuring Dr. Katie Wilson, SNS, PhD, Executive Director, Urban School Food Alliance.