Athena School District is getting really serious about food. The district has received three grants to promote healthy eating for students:
Oregon Farm to School Grant -- provides funding for the district to work with local farms via field trips, supplies, a garden coordinator and local farm/produce connections. The district partners with the Sustainable Living Center in Walla Walla and SNAP (USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to coordinate this grant.
Oregon/Washington Farm2School Grant -- supplies the school district with a coach to help move their Wellness Action Plan for Education forward.
Action for Healthy Kids Grant -- $27,000 to revamp a concession stand into a working kitchen to improve food preparation options at Weston-McEwen High School. Additionally, the grant focuses on healthy meals at all school levels with a focus on scratch cooking and utilizing fresh products from local farms. The district team was awarded travel to two national conventions and coaching from the Chef Ann Foundation.
In addition, the Athena-Weston School District received a Healthy Meals Incentive Recognition Award for making improvements to the nutritional quality of their district’s school meals. Awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in collaboration with Action for Healthy Kids, the district received the Innovation in Nutrition Education Award for implementation of nutrition education activities that made classroom, cafeteria, community, and home connections for students and families.
This fall, four representatives from Athena Elementary traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, to attend the national conference of Action for Healthy Kids, a national nonprofit whose mission is to makes schools healthier places where kids thrive.
Kerri Coffman, Principal at AES, said it was very powerful to be at an event with more than 800 people dedicated to helping kids eat healthier meals at school and to develop partnerships to use local food sources. “We were able to explore the importance of different cultural values about food, nutritional differences in scratch cooking and sustainable sources for local food,” Coffman said. She said it was inspiring to see what other school districts across the nation are doing in their kitchens and learning best practices at other schools.
Athena Elementary and Weston McEwen High School have been having regular taste tests of different foods, getting food donated by local producers and offering programs for families about healthy eating and cooking.
Carla Salter, a paraprofessional at WMHS, is serving as the kitchen coordinator at the high school, where she has been promoting taste tests for students, providing fruit options during the day and is pleased with the salad bar upgrade at the school. She recently organized a Thanksgiving dinner at the school. Salter also involves students from ASB and works with Karen Webb at the elementary school to coordinate efforts between the schools.
“It’s very exciting to get local produce to incorporate into menus, do more scratch cooking and see students trying different foods in the taste tests,” Salter said. She said more high school students are staying at the school to eat lunch now instead of leaving campus.
Ann Vescio, district Superintendent, said the opportunities to offer more nutritional meals for students through the grants have been positive. “Anytime we can partner with local businesses to benefit students in a healthy way is a win-win,” Vescio said.
