Home Cookin’

In some ways, Keisha Bock is seeing school cafeterias come full circle. Her grandmother was a school cafeteria cook, who cooked nearly everything from scratch.

Bock is now a cook for Los Lunas Public Schools. When she began her career, nearly all the food came from the freezer and was heated up to serve to students. But now, federal regulations require healthier school meals, and cafeterias are moving back toward cooking from scratch. Bock likes the trend and hopes it continues.

“I hope it really kicks into gear,” she said. “The old stuff was ugly to serve.”

Bock was one of about 50 school cooks from around New Mexico who gathered at Central New Mexico Community College this summer to learn techniques for cooking healthy meals from scratch for large numbers of children. The program was funded by two federal grants.

James Lamoureux, who teaches culinary arts at CNM, was an engaging instructor who offered tips and advice, demonstrating things as he thought of them. He taught the “hot foods” portion of the lesson, while in an adjacent kitchen, another group learned whole grain baking techniques and made whole wheat apple crisp.

Under federal law that was signed in 2010 and went into effect this year, schools are required to serve more vegetables and to limit starchy ones. A higher proportion of carbohydrates must be whole grain, and students are required to take a fruit or vegetable with their meal.

Those vegetables didn’t go over very well on Thursday at Governor Bent Elementary School, where the vegetable dish du jour was a small four-been salad with Italian dressing. The salad included green, wax, garbanzo and kidney beans.

Several students didn’t even open the salad container, and those who did tried one bite and set it aside.

Molly Sweeney, 7, said she did not intend to try the beans.

“I don’t really think it’s going to be tasty,” she said. When pressed for a reason, she said, “because of the way it looks.”

But students were enthusiastically mawing down mashed potatoes with turkey and gravy. And many also ate their dishes of pears couched in gelatin and their small, whole-wheat rolls. Several said they sometimes do eat their vegetables and named some options they enjoy, like carrots.

Isabel Alire, the cafeteria manager at Governor Bent, said Thursday was the first day she had served the bean salad, and she expects the students to get used to it over time.

“This is the first day,” she said. “When they get used to it, they’ll eat it. Once they see their friends eating it, they will.” She said many did not like the turkey in their mashed potatoes at first, but now it’s a favorite.

In the CNM class, cooks talked about the challenges of meeting the new standards and getting students to eat healthy. Sandra Ybaben, of Carlsbad, said she has provided different kinds of salad dressing, but students only eat the ranch. Lamoureux urged her to try making fresh vinaigrette and offering samples to students.

“I could imagine sampling might be key,” Lamoureux said. “Have little cups out, get input and build interest.” He said if they just put out new foods without any introduction, students might be less willing to try them.

Ybaben said the students she serves are usually amenable to taking a fruit or vegetable, as required, but they are upset because the rolls are smaller, to cut down on starch. And some of them, especially pre-teen and teenage boys, say they are still hungry after they eat.

“I don’t like taking things away from the kids. These kids are my babies,” she said.

Other cooks told success stories, about students who were reluctant to try turkey burgers but ended up liking them. Several said they were frustrated that school cafeterias are being charged with fixing childhood obesity, when students often eat fast food or other cheap, non-nutritious foods for dinner.

“I understand why we need to serve healthier food and teach portion control. I just wish there was more focus on teaching parents to do it at home,” Bock said.