Category: Nutrition

Piscataquis schools earn Healthier US School Challenge awards

Piscataquis Community Elementary School earns the Healthier U.S. School Challenge award.
Piscataquis Community Elementary School earns the Healthier U.S. School Challenge award.

A Healthier US School Challenge award ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 24, at Greenville Consolidated School, representing School Union 60. Former Nickerson Elementary School and Greenville Middle/High School both achieved the Bronze level award. Stephanie Stambach from Maine DOE will be presenting the awards.

Two Healthier US School Challenge award ceremonies are being held on Friday, Jan. 25, at Piscataquis Community Elementary School and Piscataquis Community Secondary School, representing RSU 80/MSAD 4. Both schools achieved the Bronze level award.

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SAD 75 health coordinator receives national honor

Special thanks to The Times Record for sharing this article, written by staff reporter Darcie Moore, with the Maine DOE for publication.

Mary Booth, the full-time school health coordinator for SAD 75, was recognized by the American School Health Association as the 2012 School Health Coordinator of the Year.

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From garden to table at Mount Desert Elem.

Mount Desert Elementary students Ivanna Dmitrieff (left) and Faith Reece press apples for cider during Harvest Lunch Week.
Mount Desert Elementary students Ivanna Dmitrieff (left) and Faith Reece press apples for cider during Harvest Lunch Week.
(Click to view more photos)

At Mount Desert Elementary School, students and staff took Maine’s annual Harvest Lunch Week very seriously by incorporating local ingredients into their lunch menu five days in a row, with some produce from as nearby as the school’s own backyard.

For this year’s Harvest Lunch Week, held September 24 through 28, Mount Desert celebrated a harvest-related theme each day.

Students in grades K-8 worked in the kitchen with school cook Linda Mailhot to learn more about Maine-made produce and the importance of using local ingredients. “It’s like the whole school’s in and out of here all the time,” Mailhot said. “Everybody gets into the meals—even the teachers.”

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Houlton students harvest 400 ears of corn

Dale Flewelling of the Friends of Aroostook initiative, goes over some of the ears of corn collected by Houlton Elementary students Tabria Flewelling and Launa Jay.
Dale Flewelling (left) of the Friends of Aroostook initiative, goes over some of the ears of corn collected by Houlton Elementary students Tabria Flewelling (middle) and Launa Jay last Wednesday.
Photo by Joseph Cyr

Thanks to the Houlton Pioneer Times for sharing the following article, written by staff writer Joseph Cyr.

HOULTON — Sometimes the best lessons are not taught in the classroom.

Such was the case for a group of Houlton Elementary School [students] in Lauren Fitzpatrick’s second-grade class Sept. 20, as the students journeyed to a field in Hodgdon to pick fresh corn for the school.

“(Dale) Flewelling and I have done some gardening projects with the kids in the past,” Fitzpatrick said. “We see a real excitement and ownership in the gardening project when kids have a direct connection. They get excited to put the seeds in the ground and watch them grow.”

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Harvest Lunch Week a trend at Brooklin School

Brooklin students in grades 4 through 8 are on a rotating schedule to help cook Lori Boyce in the kitchen. Last Thursday, Colby Schneider served broccoli to students, and Lucas Torrey dished up corn.
Brooklin students in grades 4 through 8 are on a rotating schedule to help cook Lori Boyce in the kitchen. Last Thursday, Colby Schneider (left) served broccoli to students, and Lucas Torrey dished up corn.
(Click to view more photos)

During Harvest Lunch Week, schools statewide are encouraged to incorporate Maine-made ingredients into their lunch menus. But at the Brooklin School in Hancock County, Harvest Lunch Week is nothing out of the ordinary – cook Lori Boyce serves local food every day of the year.

Instead of consuming instant mashed potatoes or from-the-box desserts, Brooklin students eat potatoes they dug up in the school’s garden and pumpkin bars baked with gourds they grew themselves.

Boyce makes nearly all her food from scratch, which is difficult yet feasible at a K-8 elementary with a 46-student enrollment for 2012-13.

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