The Creating Healthy Schools program, which works to provide locally produced food to students in the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, received a big boost from La Colombe Coffee Roasters Monday morning with the announcement of a $250,000 grant that will fund kitchen upgrades at the Muskegon County Marquette Campus building on the former Baker College site.
Muskegon County Commissioner Kim Cyr discussed the event at Monday's Whitehall Township board meeting. According to Cyr, the event was very well received, with third parties and farmers pledging to contribute further money to the program.
The grant will fund upgrades to vacant kitchens in the Muskegon County building, enabling the CHS program to not only improve the process by which food is delivered to ISD schools, but further boost participation from Career Tech Center culinary students. For 15 years, CTC students have been part of the program, helping develop recipes that through a series of taste tests, work their way to the student meal menu.
Dan Gorman, food service director at Montague Area Public Schools as well as the North Muskegon district, is one of the leads in the CHS program, along with Elissa Penczar, food systems coordinator at the CTC, and registered dietitian Deb Warren.
"Montague is one of the key districts, a lead district (in the program)," Gorman said. "We've been doing some of the work there, and we're coordinating it through our kitchens. Once those kitchens are up and running, a lot of the work will be done in Muskegon."
"There's 23,000 students in Muskegon County and they get fed two, sometimes three meals a day. We work collaboratively to say, 'We know we're serving apples, or lettuce, or cucumbers. How do we make sure as much of that food as possible is local?' We're working with farmers to get that through the money we already spend."
The Creating Healthy Schools program challenges CTC students to devise recipes using key ingredients, like vegetables. These recipes are then taste-tested and narrowed down to two final candidates, which are served to Montague and Whitehall students. (Gorman said younger students are familiar with the taste test days and know CTC students as "the people in the chef coats.")
Gorman said he's occasionally amazed at some of the ideas CTC students come up with, even when presented with ingredients kids traditionally do not enjoy, such as peas or mushrooms. Gorman said next week will begin the CTC's latest eight-week cycle, which produces some of those remarkable recipes; this cycle's main ingredient will be spinach.
"Someone made mushroom ice cream one year - and it was good!" Gorman chuckled. "That process they go through is really exciting, and then you really see the growth in the students. You see them take ownership of it as a collective. We see these recipes and how we can improve those recipes.
"It's not really being done anywhere else. A lot of times, we serve to kids what parents think they should like, and here, we serve them what their peers think they might like. It's one of the best programs around. Every year, all the students in the school district, since kindergarten, have had two taste tests per year, minimum. We've really created a community of tasters."
The CHS program not only benefits students who work on the CTC program - and district students who are presented with healthier meal options - but also local farmers. Through the program, they're able to sell their produce to the district to serve local students. That in turn helps them make adjustments to better tailor their production. Gorman said Rennhack Orchards in Hart is one example of this, having begun planting trees that will produce smaller apples - a better fit for students' smaller bellies.
Gorman praised La Colombe for its community commitment. The Muskegon Chronicle reported in January that the company will embark on a nearly half-billion dollar expansion to its Norton Shores facilities, and it celebrated Monday's announcement by distributing 300 boxes of locally produced breakfast foods to food pantries in Muskegon. Last October, Montague district families were able to get a free box of La Colombe products in a distribution modeled on the weekly ones that take place each summer.
"They're invested in this community, and they want to make a difference," Gorman said. "You hear those words a lot, but firsthand working with them, you can tell. They've come in and made smoothies for us, and they've come in and helped us hand out food."
