New, healthier food options, like locally grown produce and more cultural dishes, are coming to Howard County Public Schools.

In response to concerns about the taste, freshness and healthiness of school meals, the Horizon Foundation, a health philanthropy, launched a countywide survey and brought the results to the school system.

From there, an ongoing conversation and partnership formed between Horizon and the school system to establish initial steps to tackle the food concerns. The plan was announced Thursday morning at Guilford Park High School.

Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes said, “Our students’ bodies and brains must receive the healthy nutrients, vitamins and sustenance they need not just to survive, but also to thrive while in school.”

Here are the six takeaways from the plan’s outline that would:

1. A Farm-to-School Table pilot program that would look to use produce that is grown locally or regionally in school cafeterias.
2. Organize taste tests featuring existing and potentially new menu items. For now, the plan calls for at least two taste tests for parents and students.
3. Hold town halls with student groups to solicit feedback and suggestions on how to improve meal offerings.
4. Use an online portal where parents and students can provide feedback, and where survey results could be shared.
5. Have regional roundtables about the cultural appropriateness of the food served.
6. Pilot a shared-table program — a system where students can return unused whole food items or beverages — in select schools to see if it reduces food waste.

“These are an incredible step forward to get us closer to the kind of food that everyone has been asking for,” Glenn Schneider, the chief program officer for the Horizon Foundation, said at Thursday’s announcement.

The initiatives will kick off with the upcoming school year.

Brian Ralph, the director of food and nutrition services for the school system, said the countywide campaign also needs to focus on the region’s growing diversity.

“Years and years ago, it [Howard County] used to be predominantly Caucasian and African American. That has changed … so we need to be sensitive to that type of dynamic, so that’s why taste tests and listening to student perspectives can help,” Ralph said in an interview.

Other partners involved include the Healthier Choices Coalition, the LindaBen Foundation and the Korean American Senior Association.

When Sirak Nephtalem, 17, began volunteering with the LindaBen Foundation a couple years ago, he noticed how a lot of people wanted, but could not access, healthy food.

“I want them to have access,” the incoming senior at Reservoir High School said in an interview.

Nephtalem leads the foundation’s mobile market, which provides fresh produce boxes to the community twice a month at Bryant Woods Elementary School. The LindaBen Foundation provides affordable housing support and child and family stability services for local communities and for families in transition at partner schools.