Favorite Side Dish Picks for Thanksgiving this Year

It's time to start planning for Thanksgiving! Plenty of American schools serve some sort of Thanksgiving-themed lunch for the holiday, on the last day before vacation. It's a nice treat for the kids, especially those whose families may not be able to afford a full Thanksgiving spread.

However, don't overlook your school bus drivers and their needs. Besides including them in the meal, it's a good idea to consider what foods may end up on the bus. Kids like to keep treats as snacks, after all.

So, let's talk about sides you could potentially serve which are also reasonably non-messy and could be eaten on the bus without causing too much trouble for your school bus drivers.

Bus-Friendly Thanksgiving Sides That Won't Make a Mess

In general, the idea here is to avoid anything that sits in liquid sauce, or is too soft/mushy and would create a mess if spilled. Self-contained relatively dry foods are the ideal for bus snacks.

1) Bread Rolls

This one is obvious, but worth mentioning. Traditional bread rolls don't produce too many crumbs, so they can be eaten onboard with very little risk of making a mess. There is potentially the risk that students will throw the rolls at each other, but if they do, at least bread rolls are too soft to do any real damage to anything.

2) Cornbread

If you've got the resources to make fresh cornbread, that would be a nice alternative to basic bread rolls. We suggest using creamed corn in the mix, so the insides are less crumbly than typical cornbread.

We've even seen people add pimento cheese to the middle of their cornbread, although that might be beyond a cafeteria's budget.

3) Baked Squash

Slices of squash, baked with a maple syrup glaze, are nutritious and delicious. Plus, as they typically end up as semi-hardened squash slices, there's very little mess involved. They can be easily bagged up and eaten later, or even after school.

Another option would be to chop up the squash into half-inch cubes, and bake them until basically hard, for a snack that's easy to pop.

4) Melting Sweet Potatoes

For kids, sweet potatoes almost feel like cheating - a vegetable that's as sweet as candy. You don't want to hand out big dripping bowls, so try a different variation instead: Take thick horizontal slices/circles of sweet potato, and brown them with some butter. Then bake them in an oven, possibly with some marshmallows on top. The result is bite-sized bits of sweet potato goodness with a lot less mess.

5) Roasted Whole Cauliflower

Cauliflower is only as good as what it's cooked in, so try cooking whole cauliflowers with a savory glaze such as mustard-and-herbs, or perhaps a steak-style glaze. The result is a veggie that tastes almost like meat, and is basically self-contained. There should be little mess, aside from maybe small dry bits of cauliflower left over.

6) Fresh Crispy Potatoes

Basically, just fry up some potato chips in a seasonal butter-and-herb glaze. They're basically just upmarket potato chips, but kids love chips. Plus, these thicker crispy potatoes are much less crumbly than regular bagged chips, which makes them great for bus snacking.

From everyone at BusBoss, we hope you, your school bus drivers, and your students have a fantastic Thanksgiving. And remember, if you ever need help streamlining your bus operations or improving student safety, BusBoss is here to provide superior consulting and technology services. Just contact us to learn more!

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