Recipe Substitutions and Salad Bar

Contact:
Alison Bell
David Thompson Secondary, Rocky Mountain SD #06

Process:
Alison has been modifying recipes and menus to make healthier choices available well before the introduction of the Guidelines.

People Involved:
Students, administration, chef instructor

Key changes or results:
Students come back to visit Alison’s kitchen after graduation, and parents have been known to purchase items for care packages to send to their kids, surely a testament to the good food!  Former students will stop in while on Christmas break to check out the menu at the Rocky Mountain Café and complain about the food at college.

Challenges:
Given Invermere’s location in the Columbia Valley between the Rockies and the Purcells, food access can be an issue, especially in the winter.  Food for the school kitchen is delivered twice weekly from Calgary – provided the roads are open.  On occasion, what’s delivered is what is available, not necessarily what was ordered. Aside from those challenges, Alison does not anticipate big problems in making healthier foods available to students; indeed she’s already doing that.  She notes a recipe analysis program, along with a compilation of “kid approved” recipes used in Chef Training programs would be helpful tools to further implement the Guidelines.

Keys to success:
Alison makes healthier muffins by substituting some of the fat with applesauce and in other cases, serves less healthy choices, like scones, infrequently.  She’s also trying out a salad bar program once a week; her experience is that packaged salads don’t sell well, while a salad bar gives students the opportunity to choose.

Next steps:
One of Alison’s ideas is to create a cookbook of students’ favourite recipes that meet the Guidelines and use this as a fundraiser.  Early discussions with area elementary schools suggest there may be some opportunities to offer hot lunch items for Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) sponsored events