TRENTON – Eating healthy in Nova Scotia schools will take on a local flavour as a new provincial program to promote local product is introduced.
Called Strive for Five, it’s a province-wide attempt to keep school menu choices in tune with the seasonal availability of local foods.
At Trenton Middle School, some of the recipes included in a guide for the program were given a trial run.
Family Studies teacher Gabrielle Cheverie undertook an exploratory, with the students’ participation, to try out several of the recipes included in the Strive for Five catalogue.
Cheverie said the students sampled – and prepared – about half a dozen recipes per week, breakfasts lunches and suppers.
“We got a good sampling across the board,” she said. “Some of the recipes they actually really liked. And they told the ladies in the cafeteria – that if you made this, we’d buy it.”
Smoothies were popular, Cheverie said, and a handful of different varieties were prepared. Dips were also popular.
“We tried one called ‘Hard to Beet’ dip. It’s beets – and it’s purple – and they were like ‘we’re not trying that.”
But to the surprise of many of the students, they actually enjoyed it.
“The kids were always nervous to try new things. They would try them – and most of them would like them. I couldn’t believe it when they ate the Hard to Beet Dip. I thought that was awesome.
Healthy menu choices and nutrition education isn’t new to Trenton Middle School, nor is it in many Nova Scotia schools. T.M.S. already promotes the consumption of fruits and vegetables by highlighting certain foods in any given month and providing that particular item in menu choices.
Principal Allison MacNeil sits on a provincial nutrition policy advisory committee. She said eating well is a life skill.
“It’s a life skill to be able to eat nutritious food and to show students that it can be done – and it doesn’t have to cost a lot,” she said. “You’ll often hear people say, I can’t afford to eat fresh foods all winter, it’s too expensive. But if you buy in season, which is what Strive for Five is looking at, there’s nothing cheaper than potatoes, carrots and turnip in January. And you can make a beautiful meal for $10 in January with those foods.”
