Chefs Move to Schools
June 2012 Newsletter
Register online with Chefs Move to Schools at www.chefsmovetoschools.org

Chefs Move to Schools launched a brand new website with matching tools, toolkits and resources to help chefs and schools work in harmony. If you have not registered with our new site, please take a moment to do so now. This is the best way for us to keep in touch and help you have the best experience possible with CMTS!

Register now: www.chefsmovetoschools.org

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We are seeking recipes that have been used as a food preparation activity with kindergarteners, as part of nutrition education at school. If you have recipes or resources to share, please email them directly to hmrs@ars.usda.gov.
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Healthy Snack Parties Get Elementary Students Excited About Good Food in Alma, Michigan

Luce Road Elementary School's food nutrition staff has been promoting proper nutrition and healthy food to its students for more than three years. This year the food nutrition staff signed up for Chefs Move to Schools and partnered with a local chef to help host their newest endeavor: monthly Tasting Parties that feature healthy snack alternatives to junk food.

The food nutrition staff partnered with Sodexo's executive chef at Alma College, Cynthia Walz, to help prepare food samples and perform classroom demonstrations for the parties.

Tasting Party themes included: red for Valentine's Day, green for St. Patrick's Day, yellow and orange for April and Michigan-grown foods for the month of May. Each party included fruit and vegetable snacks that fit the theme and a fun teaching activity to engage the students.

Luce Road Elementary faculty and staff are committed to promoting healthy eating to its students and have banned junk food from the school. Teachers and students pledged only to serve healthy snacks during classroom parties.

A grant awarded by Shaping Positive Lifestyles and Attitudes through School Health (SPLASH) -- a Michigan state initiative that promotes classroom nutrition education -- to the elementary school provided funding for the Tasting Parties.

  Children Eating Healthy Snacks

Children enjoy snacks during a Tasting Party
     
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Alphabet Soup

Garden-fresh Alphabet Soup 		  Cooking from the garden with kids!

Ethel Jacobsen Elementary School in Surf City, N.J. partnered with Chefs Eric and Melanie Magaziner from the Mud City Crab House in Long Beach, N.J. to help with its seed-to-table school yard garden project.

EJ Elementary School's second grade class learned how to make Alphabet Soup using the fresh vegetables harvested from the school garden. After tasting their handiwork, the students declared that "vegetables taste sooooo much better when you grow them yourself!"

 
Fresh Greens Alphabet Soup

Harvest the following vegetables:

  • One clove of garlic (cut into small pieces),
  • 40 spinach leaves
  • 20 collard green leaves
  • 2 handfuls of parsley
  • 10 baby carrots, sliced
  • Purchase: organic chicken broth and ABC pasta one box (precooked)
In the morning, turn the crockpot on high add the broth, garlic and baby carrots. Simmer for three hours. Clean and cut up greens and add with ABC pasta and parsley. Simmer for another hour. Salt to taste. Turn off crockpot for a half hour (to cool) and serve.

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In the Community: Chef Michael Speranza


What do you get when you take one chef, three days of health events and a class full of hungry 5th graders? A really great opportunity for that chef (me!) to introduce food as one component of healthy eating at Healthy Living Days.

For the past year, I have been working with my school district, Victor Central Schools in Rochester, New York, as the local ambassador of First Lady Michelle Obama's Chefs Move to Schools program, part of her initiative of solving childhood obesity within a generation. We've covered a lot of ground in that time, from demonstrating knife skills with the food service staff to presenting to teachers and parents to working directly with the kids.

Healthy Living Days was a bit different. It was designed as a holistic approach to staying healthy, and included a number of outdoor activities to get the kids' hearts' pumping—and to get them hungry! 		  Chef Michael Speranza during Healthy Living Day

Chef Michael Speranza during Healthy Living Days
 
I talked with them about healthy snacks, and had three hands-on stations where they got to help make and eat fresh salsa with whole grain chips; fruit and yogurt smoothies; and make-your-own trail mix. I told them where to get healthy foods – at home versus restaurants, in the grocery store perimeter, and farmers' markets. We talked about the concept of eating a rainbow—including fruits and vegetables of many colors-- and other tips for healthy living.

The kids are always excited to eat freshly prepared foods! Selfishly, I have a lot of fun teaching them about how important food is to their general well-being, and Healthy Living Days gave them a chance to remember food's role in leading a healthy lifestyle overall.

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The Culinary Trust's Toolkit of the Month

The Culinary Trust and the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Kids in the Kitchen Section have collected and reviewed K-12 free curriculum resources that can be used in schools.

To view additional resources, visit The Culinary Trust's curriculum review website: www.theculinarytrust.org/curriculum.
Food Day Review
     
 
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We forward to working with you!

-Chefs Move to Schools Team
Chefs Move to School Website