McSorley students noticed their hamburgers were made with a little extra “love” this past Valentine’s Day. A detailed, heart-shaped indention was enough for students to take notice. In addition to these sweetheart sliders, the menu included XOXO salad, love bites, heartfull strawberries, and a sweetheart cookie. The menu was designed and coordinated by University of Idaho intern Leann Sharpe, who has spent the last eight weeks shadowing the Lewiston Independent District food service program.
According to Dawn Ball, head cook at McSorley Elementary, food service has changed throughout the last 20 years: “When I started, we thawed and cooked whole chickens and made bread. It took us three days to make lasagne, but then the kids threw it away.”
Ball said, “It is interesting to see what kids will and won’t eat these days. If they don’t eat it at home, they won’t eat it here.”
The school district is lucky to have an intern program with the University of Idaho. The program provides college students an opportunity to accomplish three planned experiences. Interns produce a themed meal, provide in-service training, and work on a special project geared toward improvement.
Leann gave our lunch program some love. Leann is a graduate of Prairie High School in Cottonwood.
Leann said she learned a lot and prepped for finicky eaters. The menu featured pink ranch dressing. “It was really interesting to see what kids will try and what they throw away. We had equal amounts of white and pink ranch dressing available.”
For her in-service training project, she spent time with food service personnel, providing tips to help students try new foods. “The goal,” she said, “is to keep a positive atmosphere around food and not pressure kids to try things.” She suggested comparing foods that are similar to something they already like or to pair a food with another to encourage your child to “just take a small bite.”
Most of the kids, she said, “liked the pink ranch best. They seemed to enjoy the event and thought it was fun.”
For the special project, the district asked her to look into “farm to table” possibilities. Leann contacted local farmers Zenner Family Farm and MacIntosh Farms to explore how Lewiston schools could incorporate locally grown wheat into their flour usage. Nonetheless, MacIntosh Farms provided two 50-lb bags of flour with which the schools can experiment.
Ellen Watson, who is the food services manager, said, “Leann has been wonderful to work with. She is friendly and respectful of others. She has good interaction with food service and other school district staff. The food service workers enjoyed having her in the kitchens. Leann has demonstrated interest, willingness to participate, organization, knowledge, and professionalism throughout her rotation. We wish Leann much success in her dietetics career!”
As her internship ends this week with Lewiston schools, she is off for two more clinical rotations at St Joe’s Medical Center and TriState Health. She will also spend time training her red border collie, Rose, for competition and finish reading The Glass Castle, a 2005 memoir by Jeannette Walls. Leann explains it as “a first world perspective of growing up poor in the United States,” and says it has helped form her perspective of childhood events. Leann will graduate from the University of Idaho on May 10, with a Master of Science in Dietetics.
As for the McSorley lunch program? They will continue theme meals (possibly May 4 and/or the once-a-year nachos to celebrate Cinco de Mayo on May 5), and they plan to continue experimenting to see what students will eat.
What was today’s lunch? Pizza ripper, which happens to be a student favorite.