The California Endowment and the Healthy Schools Meal Grant has developed two new recipes for the upcoming school menu. These recipes will incorporate more whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and be made from scratch and served banquet style.

Deb Kravitz, Program Coordinator and her team, Chef Justin Hall and the entire food service staff deserve a pat on the back.   Chef Hall states that the meal today was low in sodium and the meatloaf was gluten free.

We took our trays and helped ourselves to a salad bar, that included lots of fresh cut vegies like carrots and broccoli, fresh watermelon,  whole wheat pasta salad and a meatloaf muffin.  The turnout was terrific. Everyone from Lisa McKeoun, Dr. Kevin Caldwell from Sutter Coast Hospital, Michele Thomas, Publisher of the Triplicate with reporter Jessica Cejnar,  lots of parents, a few families like Ralph Stuart with his son and daughter, Brandon and Alyssia, and Kristin Peterson and her three children.

Some of the responses ranged from “Great salad bar, loved the meatloaf” to  the more finicky, “I don’t eat salads with head lettuce in it and the pasta dish had no flavor.”  Then there were those that ate every bite, and those that barely touched their food.

When Chef Hall came over to answer questions about the menu, questions about fluoride were asked of him.  Not wanting to steal the thunder of this crowd, proponents for a moratorium on fluoride wore their T-shirts with anti-fluoride decals and didn’t get into a debate with anyone. However, how can you talk about better nutrition and leave HFSA out of the debate?  Particularly when Harvard’s study showed HFSA lowers IQ.  Other studies show it increases obesity.  Low tests scores and obesity are two of the problems our school administration are trying to solve.

Dr. Calwell was saying that  fluoride in the water has been around for so long we just take for granted that it’s ok. He knew very little about it before now.  He finds it interesting that the problems that Sutter Coast Hospital is having with regionalization are very similar to the problems surrounding HFSA/fluoride.

Katherine Kelly, proponent of Measure A, attended the lunch and said, “I didn’t eat because I’m juice fasting but looking at the food and smelling it, I think the quality of the food is on par with what you would cook at home from scratch. The salad bar looked fresh and had a good selection of veggies and fruit. I think diet is ultra important and I’m so glad to see that kids are going to get a good start at a healthy relationship with food. You could tell the food staff and presenters were ever so proud, and they really should be. A big kudos to them all.”

Any questions, please contact Deborah Kravitz, Program Coordinator, Del Norte Unified School District, 464-0273 or email at: dkravitz@delnorte.k12.ca.us