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Indiana Nutrition Newsletter Keeping Schools ‘IN’ the Know
If you know of a
nutrition-related or
Food Service success
story, please click
here.
Issue 2018-1 Winter 2018
In this issue:
Southwestern Schools
1
Continued Story 2
Elkhart Schools
3
Patricia Urbanczyk
4
Tips to Lower Sodium
4
National
Nutrition Month
4
Food Day 2018 5
Director’s Corner 5
Grant Recipients
Recognized
6
Continued on page 2
Creative Techniques Boost Meal Participation at
Southwestern Consolidated School District
By Suzette Hartmann, School Nutrition Specialist
Southwestern Consolidated
School District’s average
breakfast participation was 18
percent at the beginning of this
school year. Now it is 25 percent,
and all it took was some
imagination! Food Service
Director Charity Elliott wanted
more students to eat school
breakfast, especially since their
combined free/reduced rate is 39
percent. In October, the Spartan
Nutrition Breakfast Club was
launched at the elementary
school. Elliott sent all of the
elementary students a personally
addressed invitation through the
school mail to let them know
about the breakfast club. Each
week students eat school
breakfast three times, their
names are entered in a drawing
for a chance to win a special
prize at the end of the month.
Random drawings are also held
for small prizes such as pencils,
hats, or cups. The same door
prize drawing is held at the high
Photo: Lunch at Southwestern featuring homemade pulled pork sandwiches.
Page 2
Continued from page 1
school, but it is called the Frequent Breakfast Diner Drawing. Door prizes were donated by food
service suppliers and the American Dairy Association of Indiana through their Fuel Up to Play
60 program. Elliott stated, “This promotion is all-inclusive; all they have to do is eat school
breakfast.”
If ISTEP coincides with National School Breakfast Week (NSBW), the food service department
offers breakfast free to all students. When ISTEP does not overlap with NSBW, the department
adjusts the celebrations so that students receive breakfast free the week of ISTEP. Special
guests are invited during the week. Past guests have included local firefighters, the Mayor, and
their school mascot Sparty. Each year the line for breakfast is out the door and down the hall.
Elliott purchased smokers and a propane grill in order to
implement different cooking techniques. The smokers are
used to make their own pulled pork. The big propane grill is
used to grill burgers (80/20 ground beef with no fillers) and
pork chops. “Anytime we do burgers we are outside grilling,
except during freezing temperatures,” stated Elliott. In order
to get all of the grilling done, Fresh Grilled Burgers will be
on the menu one day for the elementary school and the
following day for the high school. It takes a little more effort
to smoke the pork shoulder roasts. Tifany Hensley, the lead
cook at the elementary school, is the person in charge of
smoking the pork for both schools. The elementary staff
start their day at 6:15 AM, but on the days Hensley is in
charge of the smokers she arrives at 5:00 AM. The smokers
are used even when it is 40 degrees or colder outside.
Hensley is happy to do this since she knows the students
enjoy the pulled pork sandwiches so much. Even after
Christmas break, Hensley was manning the smokers.
Pulled pork is included one time on each six-week cycle
menu.
“We do as much scratch and semi-scratch cooking as we
can,” stated Elliott. “We make our own meatloaf, and it is
good.” Recently a supplier had planned his visit to
Southwestern to coincide with the day pulled pork was on
the menu. When he had to change the date of his visit to
the following week, he made sure to schedule his visit for
the day meatloaf was on the menu.
“At Thanksgiving and Easter we roast whole turkey breasts,
and for Christmas we cook spiral hams,” stated Elliott. “We
are only limited by our imaginations; we just have to be willing to do it.”
Page 3
“We are really proud of our food service staff,
and this story shows it,” stated Pam Melcher,
Director of Food Services for Elkhart
Community Schools. “Stories like this
happen everywhere, but you don’t usually
hear the stories.”
Melcher is referring to something that took
place in an Elkhart elementary school
cafeteria in October. Cindy Irons, Cafeteria
Manager at Woodland Elementary School,
took the time to share a special story by
writing it in an email and sending it to two of
her supervisors. The email was then
forwarded to Melcher, who forwarded it to all
her staff and the business office. Very
quickly, everyone in the school district knew
the story.
Irons’ email told how an elementary student
entered the school cafeteria one day last
October and asked to sit alone since she just
needed some alone time. The food service
staff hate to see a child sitting alone and
looking sad. Irons sat down to talk with the
An Uplifting Story of Caring at Elkhart Community Schools
By Suzette Hartmann, School Nutrition Specialist
girl a few minutes just to let her know Irons
cared. Two other food service staff,
Michelle Miller and Jessica Chupp, also
stopped and chatted with the student. A
few weeks later, the child’s teacher told
Irons the student had become a totally
different child since that day in the
cafeteria. The teacher thanked the food
service staff. Later that very same day, the
girl received an award for the first grading
period, but she walked out of the gym in
tears because no one came to see her
receive the award. Irons and her co-
workers helped wipe away the young girl’s
tears. They had a photo taken of the
student holding her award with all the
kitchen staff. Irons stated in her email,
“Her tears as well as ours went from being
tears of sadness to tears of joy. So the
moral of the story is to some we are just
lunch ladies, but to others we are the
world.”
A local television reporter for Channel 16
WNDU covered the story for their news
program. To view the video, click here.
Other NBC television stations picked up the
story, including WTHR in Indianapolis and
News 4 in Tucson, Arizona. The Governor
of Arizona sent out a congratulatory tweet
about the story. To read the tweet,
click here.
In addition, Elkhart Community Schools
included an article about Cindy Irons in
their November 2017 Newsletter. To view
the article, click here.
Photo: Cindy Irons, Cafeteria Manger of Woodland
Elementary School (Elkhart Community Schools)
Page 4
Congratulations to Patricia Urbanczyk for Being Selected a
National 2018 School Nutrition Hero!
The School Nutrition Foundation will honor Patricia Urbanczyk on March 5th during
the School Nutrition Association’s Legislative Action Conference in Washington, DC.
Urbanczyk is the Kitchen Manager at Edison Elementary School - School City of
Hammond. School Nutrition Heroes are selected for going above and beyond in
serving their school and community.
To read about Patricia Urbanczyk’s nomination, along with the other four School
Nutrition Heroes selected for 2018, click here.
Lower the Sodium, Keep the Flavor
Add flavor to menu items while lowering the sodium
by using spices, herbs, and no or low-sodium
seasonings in the kitchen, or set up a flavor station
in the cafeteria. Check with your vendors for
potential flavor station kits you can purchase or
make your own. At Salem Community Schools, the
managers at the middle and high school have used
a Chef Paul Magic Seasoning Blends® station and a
Mrs. Dash®/Foothill Farms® flavor station. At the
elementary school kitchen they use Toasted Onion
and Garlic seasoning in their spaghetti and salt–free
seasoning on the French fries. The middle school
station has included many flavors, including Nacho
Cheese, Ranch, Fiesta Lime, Sweet and Spicy,
Toasted Onion, Smoky Chipotle, and Garlic Herb.
Listed below are additional popular seasonings used
by schools.
Black Pepper Italian Seasoning
Cayenne Red Pepper Lemon and Pepper
Chili Powder Mexican Seasoning
Curry Powder Mrs. Dash®
Dill Weed Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
For more ideas, visit USDA’s What’s Shaking?
website by clicking here.
March is National Nutrition Month®!
Go Further with Food is the 2018 theme for
National Nutrition Month® (NNM). The Go Further
with Food message encourages us to achieve
healthy eating habits and urges us to find ways to
cut back on food waste.
Promoting nutrition during March is easy when you
use resources from the Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics. Click on the following links to find
resources for kids and adults.
NNM Celebration Toolkit
NNM Tip Sheets and Handouts
NNM Games
For more nutrition education resources, click on
the following links.
Team Nutrition - MyPlate
MyPlate Kids’ Place
MyPlate, MyState Toolkit for Teachers
Page 5
Director’s Corner - By Julie Sutton
This year our field staff will be spending more
time visiting schools that are not up for
review. Don’t be surprised if they pop in when
they are in the area. They are there to help
you and provide any guidance and technical
assistance you may need. These visits will
help you to be more prepared for your
reviews. Unannounced visits are a part of
their job and are required in response to a
complaint. Any visit is an opportunity to
address questions or concerns, and they look
forward to working with you!
Please welcome our new field consultants
Rebecca Dooley and Jacqueline Eory.
Rebecca will be serving North Central Indiana
and Jacqueline will be in Central Indiana.
Look in the CNPweb to find your assigned
consultant’s name and contact information.
Now is the time to start planning your
Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)! If you
are interested in starting or expanding the
SFSP, please contact Tina Skinner at
Happy Spring! Hopefully it is right around the
corner!
The 2018 Indiana Food Day item has been
chosen. This year, the highlighted vegetable is
the radish. Give radishes a chance! Thinly
sliced or finely grated, a small dose of this spicy
little vegetable adds big zip to salads and tacos.
The Indiana Farm to School Network is in the
works of creating the 2018 Indiana Food Day
Toolkit that will provide garden growing tips,
classroom activities, and rad radish recipes!
The toolkit will be released prior to summer
break.
The Indiana Food Day focus will be on five
radish varieties: Black, Cherry Belle, Easter
Egg, German Giant, and Watermelon. The
reason behind the five varieties is that this is
Indiana Farm to School Network’s fifth year
celebrating Food Day. Previous Food Day
vegetables have been kale, turnips, squash,
and Brussels sprouts.
Be rad and celebrate Food Day 2018! Food
Day can be celebrated any day in October.
Rah, Rah, Radishes!
By Maggie Schabel, Wellness Specialist
Page 6
As part of a 2016 Team Nutrition grant, foodservice professionals received culinary and marketing training to
promote student consumption of dark green vegetables, red/orange vegetables, and beans/peas (legumes).
They were charged with using their new culinary skills and knowledge to promote these vegetable sub-groups
during a 2017 National School Lunch Week (NSLW) event.
As a result of this effort, almost 100 school foodservice staff participated in NSLW. While not all schools that held
NSLW events are mentioned here, six schools reported implementing NSLW activities using what they learned
during their training with Chef Todd last March. The training focused on four main areas including: Smarter
Lunchroom (SL) principals, culinary techniques, key dietary guidelines, and increasing vegetable consumption
(dark green, red/orange, and beans/peas).
The SL principles most frequently used were signage, student engagement, and advertising. The most popular
culinary techniques included using alternate methods of preparation, different seasonings, and trying new
recipes. As a result, over 3500 students were exposed to different products, and these six schools have already
added new menu items in their cafeterias!
Beth Foland (DOE) and Lori Taylor (The Produce Mom) recognized the schools with certificates at the Indiana
School Nutrition Association (ISNA) Annual Conference in South Bend.
If you would like to learn more about the ideas and activities the grant schools implemented, the contact
information of the six schools/corporations reporting NSLW activities are listed below. They will be glad to share
their success stories.
Bluffton-Harrison MSD - Jennifer Borror - [email protected]
Crawford County Community Schools - Sharlyn Johnson - [email protected]
Franklin Community School Corporation - Jill Overton - [email protected]
St. Lawrence Elementary School - Kathleen Prechtel - [email protected]
West Central School Corporation - Jessica Murray - [email protected]
Western Wayne Schools - Betty Huddleston - [email protected]
Team Nutrition Grant Recipients Receive Recognition
at the 2017 ISNA Annual Conference
By Beth Foland, Team Nutrition Specialist
Photo left to right: Betty Huddleston (Western Wayne Schools),
Candas DeHoff (Bluffton-Harrison MSD), Robin McCorkle (Bluffton-Harrison),
and Jennifer Borror (Bluffton-Harrison)
Page 7
This is a publication of the Indiana Department of Education
Office of School and Community Nutrition
http://www.doe.in.gov/nutrition
In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.), should contact the Agency (State or local) where they applied for benefits. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English. To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, (AD-3027) found online at: http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html, and at any USDA office, or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights 1400 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20250-9410;
(2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected]. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
Indiana Department of Education Non-Discrimination Statement It is the policy of the Indiana Department of Education not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability, in its programs, activities, including access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups, or employment policies as required by the Indiana Civil Rights Laws (I.C. 22-9-1), Title VI and VII (Civil Rights Act of 1964), the Equal Pay Act of 1973, Title IX (Educational Amendments), Section 504 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 USCS § 12101,et.seq.).
Inquiries regarding compliance by the Indiana Department of Education with Title IX and other civil rights laws may be directed to the Title IX Coordinator, Indiana Department of Education, 115 West Washington Street, Sixth Floor – Suite 600, Indianapolis, IN 46204, [email protected] or by telephone to (317) 232-6676 or the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, 111 North Canal Street, Suite 1053, Chicago, IL, 60606-7204 (312) 886-8434. For further information on notice of non-discrimination, visit http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/OCR/contactus.cfm.
