SCHOOLS
Wednesday, august 28, 2019
HeRMIstOnHeRaLd.COM • A7
New recipes for a new school year
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
Italian style paninis and
garlic kale dip might not
be the first items someone
imagines chowing down on
in a school cafeteria. But a
culinary workshop hosted
by Umatilla High School is
looking to change that.
The workshop was hosted
Aug. 16 by the the Oregon
Department of Education
Child Nutrition Programs
and Oregon Dairy and Nutri-
tion Council with involve-
ment from the Oregon State
University Extension office’s
Food Hero campaign. It
had cafeteria workers from
across Eastern Oregon pre-
paring an extensive menu
of items with unique flavors
that still align with national
nutrition standards.
Jessica Visinsky, a child
nutrition specialist with the
ODE, who spearheaded the
workshop, knows this is no
easy feat.
“(Workers) are basically
putting on Thanksgiving
dinner every weekday by
11 a.m.,” she said.
This is the third year that
the workshop, which travels
across the state, has stopped
in Umatilla.
Those who participated
also honed their knife skills
as they worked in differ-
ent teams to prepare a large
lunch for people wishing
to sample the menu items,
which ranged from veggie
quesadillas to a sweet cinna-
mon apple bake.
Visinsky said there are
some misconceptions when
it comes to school lunches.
“We may be serving
pizza in school, but it’s got
whole grain crust and low-
fat cheese,” she said.
Rikkilynn
Starliper,
child nutrition director for
the Umatilla School Dis-
trict, said many parents
don’t know that ready-to-
serve items like chocolate
milk and heat-and-serve
items like quesadillas come
from companies that specifi-
cally formulate them to meet
national guidelines.
Countywide, almost 70%
of students were eligible
for free and reduced lunch
during the 2018-19 school
year, according to the ODE.
That number increases to
80% of students through-
out the district in Umatilla.
Schools in the Umatilla dis-
trict are unique in the sense
that they take part in the
USDA Community Eligibil-
ity Provision, which allows
them to provide meals to stu-
dents at no cost.
With so many students
taking part in school lunch,
fitting in scratch cooking
like the kind taught during
the workshop can prove
difficult.
Starliper said that when
the district first hosted a culi-
nary workshop, they walked
away with a popular Bánh
mì recipe, but that they only
offer it a couple times a
month because it’s so labor
intensive and in such high
demand.
“It’s difficult to transi-
tion to scratch cooking when
you have staff that have been
doing the same thing for
years,” she added.
Mary Smith, who works
in the Clara Brownell Mid-
dle School cafeteria, noted
that not much from the work-
shop gets to come to life in
the kitchen.
“We do some scratch
cooking, but not everything.
There’s just too many kids,”
she said.
Starliper said the district
staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Angie Treadwell (center front) leads a training on
incorporating physical activity into the classroom.
Research shows that PE in
schools can be life-changing
By JESSICA POLLARD
STAFF WRITER
School districts around
the state are trying their
best to keep up with
increasing physical educa-
tion requirements, even if
it means playing around in
the classroom.
The change is part of
an incremental plan laid
out by the state Legisla-
ture in 2007 designed to
get Oregon students exer-
cising more — 150 min-
utes a week for elementary
students, and 225 minutes a
week for middle school stu-
dents — by the 2017 school
year. When schools weren’t
able to keep up, another bill
was passed, giving districts
until the end of the 2020-
2021 school year to meet
the requirements.
Elementary schools are
expected to start provid-
ing 120 minutes this year.
That’s where Angie Tread-
well, SNAP-Ed coordina-
tor for Oregon State Uni-
versity Extensions, comes
in.
For the past few months,
Treadwell and her team
have been introducing edu-
cators at Hermiston, Uma-
tilla, and Morrow County
school districts to in-class
kits with activities that
meet the state physical edu-
staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Danielle Lindbeck, of Long Creek, stirs a pot of vegetable yakisoba during a culinary workshop
at Umatilla High School. The workshop served as an opportunity for school cooks to exchange
recipes and ideas. The workshops were hosted by the Oregon Department of Education Child
Nutrition Program and the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council.
staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Jennifer Valle, left, Cira Larsen and Ellie Dutcher collaborate on creating a dipping sauce for the
quesadillas that they made during a culinary workshop at Umatilla High School.
is hoping to include more
scratch cooking in the future.
The district has other culi-
nary projects in store for the
upcoming school year as
well.
They just purchased four
“healthy celebration” carts,
which come loaded with the
equipment needed to make
smoothies during classroom
celebrations.
“It’s easier for teach-
ers and families to take that
cart to the classroom. Instead
of having cookies and cup-
cakes, the kids can bring in
fruit, yogurt and granola and
make a smoothie,” Starliper
said.
She’s also looking for-
ward to the addition of a
FoodCorps member, who
will focus on educating stu-
dents about nutrition, to
McNary Heights Cafeteria
this year.
cation standards. She said
that it’s not always realistic
for schools to hire another
PE teacher in order to reach
the requirements.
“This kind of thing has
the ability to impact these
kids for a lifetime,” Tread-
well said.
The kits, dubbed Be
Physically Active 2Day
(BEPA 2.0), cost nearly
$100 and provides class-
room-based physical activ-
ities designed for elemen-
tary schoolers of all ages.
Treadwell said dona-
tions from Lamb Weston
helped OSU Extension
provide the kits to different
schools.
They provide teach-
ers with everything they
need to lead activities from
bean-bag balancing com-
petitions to a hot-and-cold
style game called “Find
the Veggie,” all of which
fit state physical education
standards.
“They reinforce a lot
of classroom concepts as
well,” Treadwell said.
Katherine Gunter, a pro-
fessor of kinesiology and
OSU Extension statewide
physical activity special-
ist, designed the BEPA 2.0
kits and said that the link
between physical activity
and obesity prevention is
pretty clear.
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