It may have all started when three moms from the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District got together and decided high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil needed to be removed from school cafeteria menus.
Today, the district has gone much farther than just banning these fatty, unhealthy oils; it is working to create a healthier and more sustainable food network for the students by sourcing locally as much as possible. They are not just providing the students with healthy options, but changing the way kids think about what they put into their bodies.
It was not until 2012, when the district hired Kat Soltanmorad, RD, that the school cafeterias shifted to a more organic menu, serving fruits and vegetables that were grown regionally, with every meal. Now, through partnerships with local businesses, The Tahoe Food Hub, and Produce Plus, the school system is able to provide its students with fresh local fruit and produce, delivered two to three times a week.
“Last year, we purchased 20,000 pounds of local produce,” said Kelli Twomey, the school district’s coordinator of parent and community relations. “We use local vendors and suppliers to help support our economy and to keep fuel consumption down.”
Apart from school lunch, this local produce is also going toward Harvest of the Month, a nationally recognized nutrition education program that began in a few small towns in California as a way to introduce healthy eating to low-income students.
Maria Martin, a registered dietitian with a Masters in public health spearheaded this program at TTUSD. Through a partnership with the Tahoe Truckee Nutrition Collation — a network of parents, teachers, school administrators, and medical professionals dedicated to improving school food — she was able to secure a grant to launch the initial program. Today, Harvest of the Month costs $110 per-month per-school, and is funded by each individual school’s Parent Teacher Organization.
More specifically, this nutrition education program invites parent volunteers to come into a classroom each month and educate the students about local, fresh crops.
Twomey explained that students are much more likely to try a new food in front of their peers than in front of their parents — it’s peer pressure gone right.
“My daughter always refused to eat beets until she was introduced to them during Harvest of the Month,” Twomey said of her then 8-year-old, Alex. “Now, two years later, she is still requesting that I make them for dinner.”
The October Harvest of the Month at TTUSD is the potato. The program plans on using the potato to talk about sensory feelings in terms of taste and food by using garlic, onion, rosemary, and basil to change the taste of a regularly bland crop. November will feature pomegranates.
The district takes this program one step further by highlighting the selected harvest on the cafeteria menu throughout the month. They believe that mentioning the food once in the classroom will not work; it needs to be constantly re-introduced for kids to change the way they feel about it.
Martin also explained an annual field trip the sixth graders at North Tahoe School take each year. She said that normally the teachers bring back loads of leftover salad because the students just don’t eat it. “Last year was the first year they didn’t bring back any salad,” Martin said, noting proof that the program is working.
Unlike Fruits and Veggies, Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees
It is no secret that eating healthy comes with a price tag, so where does all this money come from to fund healthier school lunches?
“The goal is to keep the money local,” said Susie Sutphin, founder and executive director of the Tahoe Food Hub. Sutphin explained that in 2014 TTUSD became a nonprofit partner with Fireside Pizza at Squaw. Together, they raised $11,000; 60 percent of which was given back to the schools.
This Farm to School Fund is a program that works with the Tahoe Food Hub, in which Sutphin encourages local businesses and individuals to financially contribute to buying local food for schools.
The public outreach doesn’t stop there. At the time of press, TTUSD was in the process of applying for the two year farm to school grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, which would supply the district with the budget to hire a farm-to-school liaison, as well as a budget for food samples that could be used in classroom tastings. This grant does not cover the cost of food in the cafeteria.
“These kids need to know where their food is coming from, not just that it is there and good for them,” said Sutphin, explaining that healthy food in schools is much more than just putting the food on the plate. It’s about educating children from a young age why it is important to know where their food comes from.
