Student chefs cook healthy meals as Duncan, Kass keep pressure on Congress
June 09, 2014 | 06:37 PM
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, center back row, and “Let’s Move” Executive Director Sam Kass, left, with the student chefs before the start of the “Cooking up Change” competition. (Alex Gangitano/The Hagstrom Report)
By ALEX GANGITANO
and JERRY HAGSTROM
Students from around the country cooked healthy meals at the Education Department today, helping Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House nutrition adviser Sam Kass in their campaign to stop Congress from granting waivers on the healthier school meal rules that the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act has imposed.
Ten student teams came to Washington for the “Cooking up Change” competition sponsored by the Healthy Schools Campaign, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, to empower students in the national dialogue about school food.
The teams, which became finalists by winning local qualifying contests, came from Chicago, Houston, Jacksonville, Fla., Little Rock, Ark., Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn., Orange County, California, Orlando, Fla., Wichita, Kan., and Winston-Salem, N.C.
The student chefs were challenged to prepare a healthy meal costing about $1 per serving, and were given a chance to present their meal at a school lunch and receive feedback from their peers.
“They gave us a list of ingredients we couldn’t use, including salt and butter, and we based our meal off of that,” said Andrew Winkle from Westside High School in Houston. Winkle’s team used local ingredients to make the “Lone Star Chicken Chili Sub,” which appealed to student appetites in Texas.
“We were up against the favored lunch at my school, chicken nuggets, and a lot of people picked ours,” said Gabrielle Arma from West High School in Wichita. Arma’s team made “Buffalo Macaroni and Cheese.”
“A lot of kids liked [our meal] because it is fresh, healthy and fills you up,” Josue Suastegui said of his “Kickin’ Taco” meal, served to students at Valley High School in Orange County, Calif.
“These designed menus will help people see it is not only doable, but needed,” said Mark Bishop, the vice president of policy for the Healthy Schools Campaign, which has arranged for the students to brief congressional staff on Tuesday.
The annual student cooking contest had been planned before the House Appropriations Committee passed a bill that would require the Agriculture Department to grant waivers from the healthier meals rules to schools that say their meals program has been losing money for six months.
But Duncan and Kass were happy to use the occasion to note that the students’ success at coming up with healthy meals their peers will eat proves First Lady Michelle Obama’s point that the any rollback of the new school meals rules is “unacceptable.”
“These are remarkable kids from throughout the country,” Duncan said. “The best of the best are coming here.”
Of the School Nutrition Association’s contention that the rules are unworkable and a burdensome cost, Duncan said, “A vast majority of schools are doing this extraordinarily well.”
“Schools that are committed to this are making it work,” said Kass, who cooks for the Obama family as well as holding the titles of executive director of “Let’s Move,” the first lady’s campaign against childhood obesity, and senior policy adviser for nutrition policy.
“We need to make sure we put our kids first and science first, and we’re confident.”
The students were given three hours to cook before being judged by a panel that included Karen Duncan, the wife of Secretary Duncan, as well as chefs from Marriott Corporate, Good Stuff Eatery and Agriculture Deputy Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Janey Thornton.
▪ Healthy Schools Campaign
▪ — Cooking up Change
Caitlyn Harrison and Anna Simeonides from the Career Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., offered a student meal of “The Best Chicken Stir Fry,” “Veggie Boost” and “Super Stewed Apples.” (Alex Gangitano/The Hagstrom Report)
