Healthy Schools Campaign

Parent Spotlight: Lilliana Hernandez

Lilliana joined other parent leaders at this year's four-day Parent Leadership Institute presented by Parents United for Healthy Schools.

Today, we are happy to spotlight parent leader Lilliana Hernandez, whose efforts as part of Parents United for Healthy Schools have resulted in positive changes for school wellness at her children's school and schools across Chicago. Congratulations to Lilliana and all the parent leaders who are making change for kids' health!

by Lanette Garcia

How did you get involved with Parents United for Healthy Schools?
I got involved with Parents United for Healthy Schools when Jovita invited me to a nutrition class. I then realized that it was very important to change our eating habits and above all, support our schools because our children’s schools, specifically their lunches, are not the best, although that has changed a lot. This is also true for us. At home, we should lead by example and make changes for ourselves, so that we can provide our children well-prepared meals that are also nutritionally balanced. Portion sizes are also important. I have enjoyed it a lot because I have learned many things for my home and school.

Why are healthy practices and nutrition education important?
Because our health depends on it -- above all, the health of our children and students. We should include these [healthy practices] as part of our daily routine and nourish ourselves each and every day. At school, the mothers in our community also help out a lot.

What is one thing you have personally changed in your lifestyle?
In my lifestyle and at home, I have changed my use of sugar and flour -- little by little, because it is difficult to stop suddenly. At school, I have helped out the mothers. We have our wellness team and once a week, we have healthy cooking workshops with the mothers, where we change our junk food recipes into something healthier.

Above all, with my children, I have also changed their eating habits. My husband has also changed his eating habits and completely went from negative to positive.

Since putting healthy practice and lessons in place at home, what changes have you seen in your home? In your school community?
There have been many changes at home. My children enjoy, for example, that when we are at home, we eat healthier food. When we go out, it is no longer difficult to give them homemade food or whatever I buy. Before, it was very difficult. “Oh! I don’t want to eat this.” They always wanted junk food. At home, it is much easier to say, “There is this and that.”

I have also changed. Before, I couldn’t live without soda, but I had to realize the damage that I was doing to my body.  Little by little I have taught them. I have to be conscious, first myself, and then I can give that to my children.  

How do parents contribute to healthy school environments?
Parents contribute a lot in healthy schools [by] bringing in wellness teams, leading discussions with other parents, and making healthy food. Parents also bring in help. We got the University of Illinois to being educational workshops on health for parents, children and the community, and to make us aware of the reality of what we experience. . . so that they can motivate us, and above all, promote our health. Health is very important.

Thanks to Lilliana for sharing this insight! Stay posted for more spotlights on parent leaders and updates on Parents United for Healthy Schools.

 

Because Every Child Deserves to Run and Play

As 2012 comes to a close, we are taking a moment to reflect on HSC's work this year and on the reasons we believe this effort is so important. Thank you for being part of this movement!

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Physical activity boosts kids’ energy and can power them through a day of learning—and a lifetime of better health. Plus, jump rope, hula hoop, running and playing kick up the fun in a child’s school experience while bolstering imagination and social skills. For kids’ learning, for their health and for their love of play, Healthy Schools Campaign advocates for recess and physical activity at school.

 

Learn more and help make sure kids can run and play in your community! To hear stories from advocates, parents, teachers and principals who are bringing physical activity back into the school day, visit the exercise and recess section of HSC’s blog. For practical tips on boosting physical activity in school, download our tip sheet [pdf].

Give the gift of activity. You have the power to make sure every child has the chance to run and play. Your gift supports Healthy Schools Campaign’s ongoing advocacy for recess, physical education and opportunities for physical activity in the classroom. This brings great benefits not only for kids’ health, but for their learning as well.
Make a gift »

 

HSC Impact: Parents Win Back Recess
In Chicago, for example, parents in HSC’s Parents United for Healthy Schools coalition gathered thousands of petitions, spoke at board meetings and contacted elected leaders in a strong show of support for bringing back recess. With HSC’s support, parents worked with specific principals to overcome barriers to recess and prove that it would be a success. When parents started working on this issue, only 6 percent of public elementary schools in Chicago offered recess. This year, recess returned to all elementary schools.

 

  Physical activity breaks improve elementary school students’ ability to stay on task during academic work by 20 percent. (Mahar MT, Murphy SK, Rowe DA, et al. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, 38(12): 2086-94, 2006.)

At Healthy Schools Campaign, we work to ensure that all children have access to school environments that support their health and learning. To learn more or talk in detail about this effort, we invite you to contact us or visit healthyschoolscampaign.org. In the weeks ahead, we will share more about our work for healthy school food and environmental health. Thank you for being part of the movement for healthy schools!

Go for the Gold Challenge Spotlight: Congratulations to Libby Elementary School!

Congratulations to Libby Elementary Academy for achieving the Silver award in the HealthierUS School Challenge! Libby joins public schools across Chicago in meeting the challenge through Go for the Gold, a partnership of Chicago Public Schools and Healthy Schools Campaign that supports schools in meeting high standards for healthy food, physical activity and nutrition education. Libby met the challenge with the support of Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. This post is part of a series about Go for the Gold schools.

With their innovative smoothie fundraiser, Libby Elementary made fundraising more creative, healthier and more delicious. Coach and Teacher Ashley Mays  called it an “awesome and successful” way to support the girls’ track team. 

The school made many other positive changes while meeting the Go for the Gold challenge, including implementing nutrition workshops and structured play at recess for kindergarten students and encouraging teachers to integrate physical activity in the classroom. Partnering with Urban Initiatives really made a difference, school leaders said, because the organization was able to gather resources and help the school stay on track with their healthy goals.

Libby Elementary students took part in creative nutrition education workshops as part of Go for the Gold.

By making health and wellness fun, Libby introduced its students to new resources in the community as well. Kindergarten teacher Carla Martinucci said, “We took our classes on a trip to the Bronzeville Children’s Museum for a health and nutrition exhibit.  It was a great trip, and the museum is a valuable community resource!”

A field trip to the Bronzeville Children's Museum reinforced healthy lessons about eating and physical activity.

Thanks to Libby Elementary Academy for sharing the story of its success story with us! Stay posted for profiles of other schools that achieved the HealthierUS School Challenge through Go for the Gold.

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Libby Elementary Academy’s achievement in Go for the Gold was supported by Healthy Places, an initiative of Healthy Chicago. Healthy Places is a collaborative effort between the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work initiative, Cooperative Agreement Number 1U58DP002376‐01. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors/organizers and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Teen Advocate Spotlight: Lucia Iglesias

This post is the third in a series spotlighting teen advocates, youth leaders who speak up about school wellness and envrironmental issues that affect them most. 

Lucia Iglesias, now a freshman at Brown University, recently graduated from Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. There she made an outstanding contribution to addressing environmental concerns, especially at her school. Lucia was also a finalist in the Teens Turning Green Project Green Challenge and was nominated by Judi Shils, one of the co-founders of Teens Turning Green.

Thanks to HSC intern Christine Andersen, who is beginning her senior year of high school, for this post! 

How did you become interested in environmental advocacy?

Last October I became involved with Project Green Challenge. I learned a lot while doing this and became very interested in addressing environmental concerns in my community. After that, I continued my work in environmental advocacy by doing research projects for Judi and interning for Teens Turning Green.
 
What methods are you using to raise awareness and rally support for your initiative?

While participating in Project Green Challenge, I held an electronics recycling drive at my school. Some months later I co-founded an environmental club with a classmate. Our club helped organize an initiative to remove paper cups from the cafeteria for Earth Month (April), and we held an Eco Fashion Show in May to raise awareness about sustainable and recycled clothing. 
 
What adults have inspired you along the way? What teens have inspired you along the way?

Judi Shils and Erin Schrode (co-founders of Teens Turning Green) definitely inspire me because they are dedicated to the entire issue of environmentalism and human health. They are so committed every day in the office, whether they are discovering new eco products, connecting with other advocates, or leading a conversation. They have this way of incorporating details of their teammates' contributions into one powerful idea. The other Project Green Challenge finalists were also huge inspirations to me. Many overcame incredible challenges of their own to participate in the project, and they all put amazing amounts of time and effort into their work; I am so honored to be one of them. 

What challenges did you face? How did you overcome these challenges?

I am a very shy person, so it was hard at times to stand behind my ideas when I was questioned. However, I know that this is bigger than me, and whatever I bring to the green initiative will make an impact in a much larger movement.
 
How has being involved with environmental advocacy in your community helped shape your personal outlook on these concerns and your daily life?

Environmental advocacy has helped me become more conscious about the choices I make every day. For example, as I prepare to decorate my first college dorm room, I am looking for eco-friendly dorm supplies. I try to consume less, and buy used whenever possible.
 
What message or piece of advice would you like to send to other aspiring teen advocates?

I have learned that environmental issues are at the core of all human issues. They are sometimes seen as elitist and for people who don’t need to deal with "real issues." But I see an interconnected system, and when environmental issues are addressed, so many other human issues are also being addressed. For example, choosing greener cleaning products doesn’t just reduce the spread of toxic chemicals in the environment, it also protects the health of family members who come in contact with the cleaning products and reduces their exposure to toxins.
 
What do you hope to do in this area in the future, what is your next step?

I hope to continue to advocate for green living at my college, and to learn about more ways that I can make environmentally conscious decisions in my daily life.

Thanks to Lucia for this interview! 

Previous teen advocate spotlight: Mariah Geiger

A Fun, Healthy Idea for the Thanksgiving Table

We're always looking for new, fun ways to celebrate holidays without lots of sweets. And of course, we love when kids get excited about fruits and veggies. Here's one new idea that combines both of these goals into a festive treat. Plus, it's also a craft project and (wait for it) a centerpiece!

Yes, it's a veggie turkey. This idea comes to us from Jovita Flores, manager of Parents United for Healthy Schools. Jovita works with parents all over the city as part of HSC's network of wellness teams, and one group had recently been skewering fruit kabobs into tasty flower-like bouquets. With Thanksgiving coming up, Jovita created a new, delicious (and really nutritious!) kind of turkey for the holiday table.

The body of the turkey is made of a large vegetable or fruit (most likely an eggplant, pineapple or squash). Fruit or veggie kabobs make up the feathers. (We used wooden skewers.) The eyes are cucumbers topped with grapes or prunes on toothpicks, and red and yellow pepper pieces create the beak and mouth. 

It's a great holiday activity for the kids (much healthier than making a gingerbread house!) and the entire thing is edible once the day is over.

Thanks to Jovita, teams of parents across the city are creating these fruit and veggie turkeys at their school wellness team meetings. (One group is even giving a turkey to their principal as a special gift). 

Try it out, and share your creative variations on this fun, edible craft project!

 

Bringing Mindfulness to the Classroom, Pt. 3: Keep it Simple and Consistent

Students cool down in the classroom after lunch in a "Warrior I" pose. Photo courtesy of Mindful Practices.

This post is the third part of a Q&A with Carla Tantillo, owner/founder of Mindful Practices, author of Cooling Down Your Classroom, and a frequent facilitator in HSC's Fit to Learn professional development program.  A former teacher in the Chicago Public School system, Carla has experience working with youth from low-income communities.  Both her private yoga practice and her occupation as an educator inspired Carla to start a business that combines her two passions.  Now she works closely with Chicago schools, demonstrating how to incorporate mindfulness techniques into the regular school day.  Read the first two parts of this Q&A here and here. 

What small changes can teachers make to support a more mindful classroom?

I would suggest they start with something simple, like 5-10 minutes a day.  I would say they start with a little toolbox of 3-5 activities.  The cotton ball breathing is the perfect activity because you teach it and then can replicate it every time the students take a test.  I always encourage the teachers to reflect on when throughout the school day they’re stressed and agitated, because we know that when teachers are stressed and agitated, it impacts the level of efficacy. And then also taking a look at where your students are. Do students exhibit a lot of anxiety when they come in from lunch or recess? Is it prior to testing; is it prior to the spelling test that happens every Wednesday? 

The most important thing is that you make it consistent.  If it’s something where the students are like, “Eh, this is the thing for this week, and that thing is going to change next week. . .” then the students aren’t going to buy into it because you’re not buying into it.  So teach the cotton ball breathing activity and then you say to your students, “OK, every Wednesday prior to our spelling tests we’re going to sit at our seats and do cotton ball breathing for 30 seconds to help us cool down and get centered and be ready to learn, ready to take our spelling test.”  So you’re articulating what you want out of the activity, you’re articulating why you’re doing the activity, you’re narrating for students the activity. You’re helping them cool down simply by telling them why they’re doing the activity and that you understand they are experiencing stress and anxiety prior to a spelling test. And then you’re practicing it consistently.  All students respond positively to structure, so let’s honor that and let’s build in these techniques into the curriculum.  It honors the teacher’s needs, it honors the context and the environment in which the learning is taking place.

Have you ever had to deal with "push back"?  How do you respond to people who are skeptical of your approach?

There are two types of push back.  I think that the first is a fear that parents are going to think yoga is religious.  I would say that that fear happens way more than the push back from parents actually does, which is interesting.  In six years of operation, since we opened our doors in 2006, we’ve only had three parents that have said their students cannot participate in the classroom yoga.  Now, in [Cooling Down Your Classroom], yoga is a piece of it, for sure, but there are activities that can be taken outside of the yoga. The cotton ball breathing, for instance.  It doesn’t mention yoga, doesn’t have Sanskrit in there — a cotton ball is a pretty innocuous object....

What I always say is: you send a weekly bulletin home, you have newsletters, you have curriculum nights and you include this in that newsletter, you include this in the curriculum night, you do an information sharing.  Any schools that we work with, we’ll always talk for free and talk to parents on curriculum night, on a family wellness night.  I always suggest including this practice in an overall wellness plan.

The other [push back] is transition times, that they will become too long. A lot of times teachers will say they hate the time period after lunch. "I hate getting my students into the classroom and getting them focused on reading after they were just running around playground all sweaty.  How do I do this?” And so you say, “Let’s tackle those times.  Let’s tackle your Friday afternoon.  Let’s tackle when your prep is cancelled because the computer teacher called in sick again and you’ve got 45 extra minutes and you’ve already showed your Shrek video.  What do you do?” There’s a real functionality here.  You’re not just looking at the automaticity that your students need to help control behavior; you’re also looking at how your classroom functions and where you need help as a classroom teacher.  So you chat that out, both the fear of the religious piece and the fear of transition times being lengthened, you get teachers and parents to identify what their needs are and you can waylay those fears.

Thanks, Carla, for more great tips on implementing these practices in the classroom!

Award-Winning Cooking up Change Recipe: Creole Vegetable Hash (Plus, a Cooking Demo!)

As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and look around for special, healthy recipes to share with family and friends, HSC is happy to highlight one of the many incredible recipes from last week’s Cooking up Change healthy cooking contest.

This recipe for Creole Vegetable Hash, a side dish created by the culinary team of Dunbar Career Academy, helped propel the team to second place in the coveted school lunch category.

On the morning of the contest, team member Ciara Dixon visited the studios of WCIU’s You & Me This Morning to prepare the great-tasting dish on-air with host Jeanne Sparrow! Check out Ciara’s great cooking demo, then check out the full recipe below!

 

Recipe: Dunbar Career Academy's Creole Vegetable Hash

Ingredients

• 2 cups baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 ½ tablespoons cooking oil
• ½ cup yellow onion, diced
• ½ cup green bell peppers, diced
• 1 cup pinto beans
• 2 cups mixed vegetables, frozen
• 1 cup collard greens, frozen, chopped
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• ½ tablespoon southern seasoning (or blend of paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper, dried thyme, and dried oregano to taste)

Instructions

1. Place potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with ½ tablespoon of the cooking oil and toss to coat. Bake in a preheated 400° F oven for 30 minutes.
2. In a large skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add onion and bell pepper and sauté over medium-high heat until onions are translucent.
3. Add potatoes from the baking sheet to the skillet, then add beans; sauté for 5-7 minutes.
4. Add mixed vegetables, collard greens, granulated garlic, Southern seasoning and Cajun seasoning; mix well and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and serve hot. Enjoy!

Many thanks to student chefs Nekeisha, Ciara, Jerry, Alexander, Nyree and Martinique for sharing this wonderful recipe!

Students Shine in Cooking up Change Demos on Fox and WCIU

On Friday morning, teams of high school culinary students across Chicago gathered with their teams to get ready for the Cooking up Change healthy cooking contest. Students started early, cooking at their schools before traveling to the Brideport Art Center, where they prepared, plated and presented healthy school meals to a panel of judges.

For a few students, the day started even earlier! Three energetic student chefs brought their talent to television by presenting cooking demos on two local morning shows: Fox's Good Day Chicago, hosted by Cooking up Change judge Corey McPherrin and WCIU's You & Me This Morning, hosted by Jeanne Sparrow.

Check out these great segments, below! Thanks to the hosts for their warm welcomes and to the students for sharing their talent for Cooking up Change.

Cooking up Change judge Corey McPherrin hosts students and the culinary instructor from Tilden Career Academy:

Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

Jeanne Sparrow of WCIU welcomes Dunbar Career Academy Ciara Dixon and lends a hand in preparing the team's Creole vegetable hash:

Plus: On Thursday, November 8, Cooking up Change contest co-chair Randy Zweiban of Province visited NBC studios and chatted with The Talk's Marion Brooks about Cooking up Change!

Free Webinar 11/15: How to Create a Cleaner Fleet of School Buses with an EPA Rebate

It's no secret that while school buses are one of the safest ways of getting to school, the emissions of  older, dirty diesel engines can pose a risk to children's growing bodies. 

A few of our past blogs:

• Dangers of School Bus Idling: Myth or Fact?
• How Healthy Is The Air on the Yellow School Bus? 

And while there are many easy steps to reducing exposure, one of the most effective ways of handling this is through a retrofit of existing bus engines. 

Lucky for us, EPA just announced a rebate program for retrofitting bus engines with cleaner technology!

There's a free webinar coming up. Check it out:

When: November 15 at 2 p.m. EST

Where: Visit https://epa.connectsolutions.com/schoolbusrebates (select "Enter As Guest") or call in using: 866-299-3188 and the code 3327333#. 

Interested in learning more? The National Clean Diesel Campaign has set up an informational page about the rebate program here. 

An Unforgettable Night for Cooking up Change's Student Teams

Student chefs react to their win at Cooking up Change

One of the best parts about Cooking up Change is the intangible but undeniably electric energy of students converging, finally meeting other high-achieving culinary students and at last having the chance to show off their hard work with passion and dedication.  

The day of the competition, nerves jangled, stomachs filled with butterflies, and young people in crisp white uniforms began the complicated task of cooking for nearly twenty judges -- an for an audience of 600+ hungry guests. Then they set to work serving sample-sized versions of their meals, often at lightning speed. 

Student chefs prepare taste-size samples of their meal for a panel of judges

For many aspiring chefs, it was the chance to see what it'd be like to run their own restaurant. Darrell Crawford, a junior at Simeon, surveyed the room and said, "If this was my business, I'd be really happy. Lots of people, lots of different foods, a good team."

Other students were hoping that the long road to finalizing their recipes would pay off. "We're getting very positive feedback and hope we win," said Miriam Chavez, a junior at Prosser. "We struggled a lot with our recipe and had to change it a lot. Some of the ingredients had to be changed so we could create a balance."

Students from every school faced a heap of obstacles. Javontae McCloud, a senior at Corliss, joked: "The most challenging thing? Washing the dishes! No, I'm just playing . . ." He went on to add that, in all seriousness, Cooking up Change taught him a lot about eating well. "I learned that you can't be afraid to try new things. And it's OK to eat what you normally eat -- just do it a healthier way."

Students present tastes of their entree and two side dishes

For the winners, though, it was a particularly special night. The students of Washington High School accepted their award with hugs, cheers and even some tears. "I'm just really happy," said Leon Sanchez, a senior at Washington. "We worked so hard to get to where we are." He added that the trip to D.C. would be his first opportunity to travel outside of Illinois. 

Washington junior Marina Nava added that her whole school would feel the effects. "I'm so proud of my school," she said. "People will know good things about our school now. They'll know Washington won [Cooking up Change]. We were underdogs; now we're first-place winners."

Culinary team members from Washington High School celebrate their first-place win

Congratulations to our Winning Cooking up Change Team!

Washington High School team members accept their trophy at Cooking up Change

Today we're thrilled to announce the winner of Chicago's Cooking up Change 2012 competition.

Congratulations to Washington High School!

• Culinary Students: Leonard Gutierrez, Marina Nava, Karen Rivera, and Leon Sanchez 
• Culinary Instructors: Olanike Braimoh and Tai Sellers
• Mentor: Terri Lamont, Greater Chicago Food Depository

Students tackled a difficult challenge -- creating a meal that both pleased their peers and met USDA standards for price and nutrition. Despite the obstacles, they were able to create an incredible lunch.

Their winning meal:

• Chicken Rancheros (Seasoned chicken on tostadas topped with cheese and cilantro)
• Elotes Washington (corn on the cob brushed with cayenne and parmesan cheese)
• Fruta de Tropico (mixed fruit with yogurt and cinnamon)

The Washington High School team will go on to represent Chicago in the Cooking up Change national finals in May 2013!

Kudos to all the teams who competed in this year's Chicago competition! Tremendous thanks to the judges, team mentors, culinary instructors, sponsors and leadership whose support makes Cooking up Change possible!

Check back soon for more about the rest of the competition!

Today, We're Launching a New Season of Cooking up Change!

Today, high school culinary students will step forward to present their vision for the future of school food: healthy, great-tasting lunches that get two thumbs up from fellow students and nutritionists alike. The students are competing in Cooking up Change, Healthy Schools Campaign's annual healthy cooking contest that challenges students to reinvent school lunch.

The flagship Chicago contest, which takes place today at the Bridgeport Art Center, kicks off a series of contests across the nation. In May, the winning team from each city will travel to Washington, DC to compete in the national finals and present their vision for school food to Congress. We invite you to join us in Cooking up Change! 

 

 

A Huge Thanks to our Incredible Sponsors for Cooking up Change!

High school culinary students celebrate their win in the healthy school lunch category at Cooking up Change.

Cooking up Change relies, first and foremost, on the incredible efforts of students to craft winning meals that their peers will love. But we also rely heavily on another group -- just as dedicated and passionate about the Cooking up Change cause -- our sponsors. This group of amazing businesses, organizations and individuals makes the contest possible, year after year. 

Their support ripples throughout the entire event -- from the smiles on students' faces to the gorgeous location where we gather. This support creates a platform for students to shine -- and for that, we can't thank them enough. 

Today, we reach out with heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors, at all levels:

Chicago Sponsors

Premier sponsor

• Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality

Patron sponsor

• Preferred Meal Systems, Inc.

Champion sponsor

• Asian Food Solutions, Inc.
• Organic Life
• School Health

Official Education Partner

• Chicago Public Schools Office of Pathways to College and Career Culinary

Scholarship Sponsor

• Washburne Culinary Institute

Leader

• Cristina Foods, Inc.

Partners

• Harris myCFO
• Illinois Federation of Teachers
• Perkins + Will
• Quest Food Management Services, Inc.

Advocates

• Alper Services LLC
• Institute for America's Health
• Cabot Creamery Cooperative
• Kellogg's
• New Leaf Paper
• PolPress, Inc.
• Revolution Foods
• R.S. Owens
• Schiff Hardin LLC
• SEIU Local 1
• SEIU State Council
• Testa Produce
• US Foods
• Urban Health Initiative of the University of Chicago Medical Center

Supporters

• Tammy and Ted Becker
• Illinois State University
• William and Sara Porter
• Rick and Donna Yule

National Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

• American Federation of Teachers
• Chipotle Mexican Grill 

Official Travel Partner

• Southwest Airlines

Official Culinary Partner

• James Beard Foundation

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More info on our generous sponsors is here! 

Learn more:

• Read our Q&A with Cesar Dovalina, president of Cristina Foods.
• Read our Q&A with Chipotle representative Emily Francis.

 

"I Changed a Lot of Things . . . "

Be part of Cooking up Change. . . tomorrow! Learn more at www.cookingupchange.org.

Who Picks the Winning Meal at Cooking up Change? Expert Judges, of Course!

Judges listen to a student presentation at Cooking up Change

The Cooking up Change healthy cooking contest is, at its heart, all about inspiring students to create the healthy school meals they want to eat. Students design menus and create recipes, working side-by-side with professional chefs. They develop skills and learn lessons -- from teamwork to healthy cooking -- that can last a lifetime. It's the process that counts, win or lose. 

Well -- the competition is a big part of it, too! The heated competition gets everyone, from the students to the guests who taste their creations, pumped up, year after year. And that couldn't happen without our incredible panel of expert judges. We are so fortunate to work with some of Chicago's finest culinary and civic leaders, who will tackle the challenge of choosing the winning meal. 

It won't be easy -- it never is. Students spend weeks refining their meals. But judges must rate them on a few key criteria: originality, taste, appearance and presentation. And of course, meals must meet USDA standards for nutrition as well as limitations on cost and ingredients. 

So, with special thanks for their time, energy and taste buds, we salute the members of our incredible judging panel, who will soon face a mighty delicious challenge:

• John Chiakulas, Partner and Corporate Executive Chef, Lettuce Entertain You
• George Chivari, Chief Executive Officer, Preferred Meal Systems, Inc.
• Leslie Fowler, Director, Office of Nutrition Support Services, Chicago Public Schools
• Susan Goss, Chef/Owner, West Town Tavern
• Vinni Hall, Secretary, Illinois State Board of Education
• Alia Laniani, Student, Kenwood Academy High School
• Corey McPherrin, Anchor, Good Day Chicago
• Frances Moore, Food Service Manager, New Millenium Health High School
• Kristopher Murray, Executive Director, Washburne Culinary Institute
• Kymm Mutch, Regional Learning Lab Project Director, School Food FOCUS Upper Midwest Regional Learning Lab
• Carrie Nahabedian, Executive Chef, NAHA
• Brenda Nichols, Lunch Room Assistant, Marshall Metro High School
• Ina Pinkney, Chef/Owner, Ina’s
• Tony Priolo, Executive Chef/Owner, Piccolo Sogno
• Jesse Ruiz, Vice President, Chicago Board of Education
• Julie Smith, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Governor
• Beth Swanson, Deputy Chief of Staff for Education, Office of the Mayor
• Stephanie A. Whyte, Chief Health Officer, Office of Student Health and Wellness, Chicago Public Schools
• Dequandre Williams, Student, Harlan Community Academy High School
• Erick Williams, Executive Chef, MK Restaurant
• Travis Young, Regional Vice President, Chartwells-Thompson Hospitality

Thanks, judges! We'll see you at the judging table in just a few days!

Guest Blog: Chefs of Tomorrow are Cooking up Change Today

Today we have a special guest blog from David Blackmon, Program Coordinator of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Agricultural Science in the Chicago Public Schools Office of Pathways to College and Career.

by David Blackmon

On Friday, November 9, teams of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high school students will present to a crowd of nearly 700 guests just how tasty and healthy school lunch really can be. The students producing the meals are from Culinary Arts Programs in CPS schools, through the CPS Pathways to College and Career initiative. 

Their in-school training, as well as the professional experience of taking part in a culinary competition and presenting food at the benefit, helps prepare students for careers in an increasingly health-conscious culinary world. Opportunities like Cooking up Change and others do a lot to develop the students' self-esteem and instill feelings of accomplishment.

Last year’s competition was filled with culinary students with their heads held high and their chests filled with pride. During the event, guests will have the opportunity to talk with students about their inspiration and learn the ingredients within their tasty culinary delights.

Watching the enjoyment on people's faces as they sample student-made dishes, students feel real pride in the work that they do. Plus, they gain a whole new perspective on what they can do in the future.

And that makes a really big difference.

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Special thanks to David Blackmon for sharing this perspective on Cooking up Change! 

"I Had More of a Personal Experience . . . "

Be part of Cooking up Change! Learn more at www.cookingupchange.org.

 

"You Can Always Make It Healthy. . . "

Be part of Cooking up Change! Learn more at www.cookingupchange.org.

Chicago's WGN Spotlights Cooking up Change!

We're always excited for extra attention around Cooking up Change -- and this week, we were particularly thrilled to be featured on Chicago television thanks to WGN's Lunchbreak segment. With team mentor Chef Matt Eversman and a student from Clemente Community Academy, viewers learned how to make Baked Cajun Mac N' Cheese, designed by Clemente Community Academy students for Cooking up Change in 2010. 

The dishes that students create for Cooking up Change are healthy, kid-friendly and inexpensive to make at home, and this one's no exception. Check out the video to hear about Cooking up Change and learn how to make this tasty dish at home!

 

"It's a Lifestyle That We're Working On. . ."

Be part of Cooking up Change! Learn more at www.cookingupchange.org.