Each year, the fifth-grade students in Jim Gemma’s class at Rhodes Elementary School participate in the nationwide civics initiative known as Project Citizen.

The project, which is aligned with the Common Core State Standards for literacy in history/social studies, promotes responsible public participation in government. Project Citizen encourages students to find a problem within their community that is meaningful to them, research and evaluate the problem, create real solutions in the form of new policies, and create an action plan for state or local authorities to adopt and enforce their policies.

In past years, the students in Gemma’s classes have chosen their topics together, proposing policies around the issue of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and food labels, smoking in cars with minors present, and better food choices in school breakfasts and lunches. In doing so, each year the class hosts a whole list of guest speakers – including representatives from state and local government, the Department of Health and the school department – as they do their research and create their portfolio, which is later showcased locally and at the state level. Gemma’s classes have been recognized nationally for their work in the past.

This year’s crop of students is once again focusing on food and nutrition, specifically in the area of their school lunches. They have begun to put their plans into action with the help of the Sodexo managers, chefs and employees who work in Cranston Public Schools, planning and preparing the lunches.

As part of their research, the students invited guests from the school department, the School Committee, the health department, local legislators, and representatives from Sodexo in order to discuss their concerns about the school lunch offerings. Now, through the partnerships they’ve established, the students are already getting to see the changes they’re asking for.

“We don’t think the school lunches are healthy enough,” said Bram Gormly during a meeting with state Sen. Joshua Miller.

The students’ concerns revolve specifically around the sodium levels found in the foods, having done research that shows that the national requirements will soon change to become even more stringent than the current ones. Additionally, the students are hoping to see an increase in the farm-fresh fruits and vegetables and vegetarian offerings on the menu.

“We wrote the standards to what we think they should be – healthier lettuce, lower sodium,” Jack Neville said. “In 2016, the sodium levels will be lowered even more.”

Salad bars, offerings of spinach, arugala and meatless salads, exposure to new and different foods, and partnerships with local farms, businesses and milk providers topped their wish list.

During his visit, Miller spoke to the students about the process of choosing and ordering foods, and the costs of certain types of foods. He drew upon his experiences as a restaurant owner.

“My position at night is as a senator, but during the day, my day job is that I own restaurants. And things like nutrition and where we source our foods is important to us,” he said.

Miller joined the students for lunch that afternoon in the lunchroom, agreed that there was definitely room for improvement, and applauded their efforts for higher standards.

During their meeting with the students, which was multiple hours long, the representatives from Sodexo – general manager Lynne Conca, registered dietician Aaron Lenart and executive chef Joanne Carferelli – also agreed that it is important to keep working toward change in the lunch menus and standards. They discussed with the students the changes that had been made already, keeping Rhode Island ahead of the curve when it comes to nutrition and standards.

“Some changes are a compromise, and some changes can be more immediate,” Conca said. “Sometimes, the issue is that it’s a government product with a specific formula, and it’s not that easy to change, it’s more gradual. Rhode Island is ahead in their nutrition standards, as compared to the government. Sodexo made changes 10 years ago, changing over to whole grains, for example. It’s also important to remember that things like condiments also count towards the nutrition standards, and to remember that all companies use the same government products in their offerings.”

However, the representatives listened to the students’ concerns and worked with them to address things that could be more immediately changed.

Starting Monday, May 18, the students were able to see their changes in action with the addition of a grilled chicken sandwich on the menu and a new fruit bar at Rhodes, which included a snack of garbanzo beans with Mexican spices as something new to try. New vegetarian salads and a salad mix that would consist of kale and spinach – both dark green and leafy – were going on the menu, and sun butter would be offered all the time as a vegetarian option.

The team would soon be introducing “Simply to Go” options, which are upscale grab-and-go lunch options at all three levels, aimed at speeding up the lunch lines, as well as rolling out many other new options including rotating fresh fruits and chilled fruits and beans, a “Garden Bar” type of menu, and the changeover to a chicken tenderloin which contains more natural, whole muscle meats rather than parts, as they continue to implement some of the students’ new ideas and combine them with their own continuous changes and improvements.

“We want our students to be happy and we want to do what the school district wants,” Conca said. “Unfortunately, in some cases, like with the local businesses request from the students, we are required to work off of an approved vendor list, and if our company doesn’t have the company on the list, we can’t use them. However, we incorporate a lot of local items into our menu and we do use the Rhody Fresh milk they were asking about, on our Local Day with approval.”

Carfarelli also noted that in addition to the many thousands of pounds of local produce used each year, including corn from Confreda Farms harvested for the schools, the company was hoping to expand its offerings of local produce by proposing to flash freeze some of the items for use on lunch menus throughout the year.

“We’re hoping to be able to flash freeze fresh fruit items such as berries and applies, and fresh vegetable items such as green beans and carrots,” she said. “Rhode Island only has so much season, so we’d like to maximize what we can from the minute school starts until the minute school ends.”

Additionally, the company has proposed field trips to places such as Pezza Farm so that students just like Gemma’s can see the acres of farmland harvested for Sodexo schools, tour the farms, meet the farmers and learn more about the process.

“They can get to know their farmers and their foods,” Conca said.

Ultimately, she believes that she and her colleagues have the same goals as Gemma and his students – healthy, nutritious, tasty meals for everyone. For the students, though it sometimes seems that the progress may be slow, knowing that there is progress being made – and that they are a part of it – is important.

“We want to all work together and we all want to make things better. We are working together, transforming every day,” Conca said.