The NH School Food "Community" ROCKED the house!

On behalf of the students of NHPS I'd like to say many thank you's to Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Rep. Pat Dillon, Dr. Mayo, Will Clark, USDA, CSDE, Barnard Environmental Magnet School team, CARE, our community partners and all the CHEFS who helped kick-off Health Heroes & Chefs Move to Schools. Yesterday was a fantastic day and we ad Chefs kept the students engaged as we spoke to and educated them on the importance of eating real foods.

The students had the opportunity to participate in cooking demos and some classes were read stories about real food and farming.

The cooking demo classes were able to sample the ABC's & Y & Z's of food: Apple skin spaghetti (Congresswoman DeLauro & Chef Tim), Black bean hummus (Chef Eric Pasquale), Chevre crostini with heirloom tomatoes (Chefs Dan Bathelder, Glen Brunetti &amp Ana Jaramillo); Carrot story and tasting session (Chef Tagan Engel),  Yogurt smoothies (Chef Dave Prescott) and Zesty green goddess pasta Chefs Matt & Peter Weichner).

Chef Tim of NH School Food was pleased with the day, "The look of excitement on a child's face when a Chef walks into the room is priceless. The most amazing thing with yesterday is we prove the naysayers that say kids won't eat vegetables or are unwilling to try new foods wrong. Even the students who were adamantly opposed sampled the food and enjoyed them. Look, when you put together a delicious offering and present it to the children with a positive attitude the kids will try it and 9 times out of 10 like it!"

Thanks to the strong commitment of our Food Service Team NH School Food is leading the way to cooking & preparing better, healthier foods in the schools everyday. Our children are being exposed to foods they may have never been exposed too. Our workers are working with MORE fresh fruits and vegetables, many from local farms, than they ever have before! The strong commitment to TEAMWORK expressed by the staff comes through on the face of the children daily when they take their first bite of an ear of corn from a farm 8 miles up the road.

The NH School Food Community can take solace in that NH School Food is working closely with USDA to become the first school district in CT with the largest number of Gold with Distinction Healthier US School Challenge schools in CT. We are committed to the future health and well being of the students in our schools and are looking forward to working with USDA and CSDE as we re-evaluate our menus, health education and physical activity in our schools.

In the words of our First Lady Michelle Obama, "Let's Move!"

Stay tuned to this blog and our website http://www.nhps.net/ for exciting things happening with the country's most progressive school food program.

Local media:
Program Eyes Better Eating Habits for Kids- New Haven Register

New Haven launches healthful food program for kids- New Haven Register

Surprise! It came from a goat- New Haven Independent

Health Heroes to begin in city schools- Yale Daily News

New Haven Chefs Move to Schools- CookingTeens.com