ChicopeeFRESH - Blog!

Celebrating National School Breakfast Week!

3/8/2019

Start your engines with school breakfast!

March 4 - 8 was National School Breakfast Week! We celebrated with prize giveaways and special guest appearances all week long! Check out the slideshow below for highlights from the week:

Why eat school breakfast?

We believe that a nutritious breakfast is crucial to a successful day of learning. Studies show that students who eat breakfast generally have healthier overall diets and a lower chance of being overweight or obese. Furthermore, skipping breakfast is linked with tardiness, absenteeism, and falling behind in school. When students go to class hungry, they are more likely to experience stomachaches, headaches, depression, and an inability to focus. Since starting breakfast in the classroom programming at our elementary schools, we have noticed a dramatic reduction in nurse's visits and an increase in student performance.

Because we are a CEP district, all students can eat a free breakfast every day. And due to a new state mandate, we will soon be offering breakfast after the bell in all 15 Chicopee schools, with a goal of at least 80% participation.

To learn more about school breakfast, check out this fact sheet from No Kid Hungry.

Our Lunch Menus Have Moved!

2/28/2019

Our lunch menus have now moved over to the brand new Chicopeeps website! We are no longer using Nutrislice, so if you are looking for menus there or on the app, you will not find the latest information. We apologize for any inconvenience, but hope you will enjoy the ease of having the menus right on our Food Service page.

Find Our Menus Here!

FoodCorps Applications Are Open Now!

2/28/2019

Join a passionate team of Americorps leaders who are working to connect students to healthy food in schools! FoodCorps is currently accepting applications for their 2019-2020 service term. Our Chicopee FoodCorps members each serve in two elementary schools leading hands-on lessons in the classroom and garden, hosting monthly taste tests with local foods, and engaging community members and partner organizations around the topics of nutrition and food access. You could be the next leader who takes on the challenge of creating healthier school food environments in Chicopee! Apply now to serve up change HERE!

Meet Our New Food Service Director!

2/28/2019

Hi everyone, my name is Melanie and I’m the new food service director for Chicopee Public Schools. I’m so excited to be a part of the ChicopeeFRESH team and I can’t wait to continue providing our students with well-balanced meals and fresh, local foods. I grew up here in Chicopee so the hometown connection is strong, and I’m so proud of how far our school food service program has already come. I’m a registered dietitian and was lucky enough to be placed here during my dietetic internship, where I got to learn the nuts and bolts of the farm to school program. I’m also a mom to twin 6 year olds, so I’m looking forward to sharing my love of nutrition with the kids of Chicopee.

We're thrilled to have Melanie on the team. Right now she is working on bringing Breakfast After the Bell to all Chicopee schools. Check her out talking to 22 News about breakfast here!

Five Reasons Not To Do a Juice Cleanse This Year

1/15/2019

By Kelly Zimmerhanzel, FoodCorps Service Member

If you’ve paid any attention to diet trends over the last few years, you have no doubt heard of juice cleanses or juicing. Celebrities from Gwyneth Paltrow to Kim Kardashian have been touting the benefits of juice cleanses for years. But what is a juice cleanse and why are celebrities so obsessed with them? According to Medical News Today, “a juice cleanse is a type of diet that involves consuming only juices from vegetables and fruits in an attempt to lose weight and detoxify the body.” It’s tempting to go for this quick fix, to believe that drinking nothing but juice for a few days will make up for years of eating processed junk foods, but that’s not really how the body works. Here are five reasons not to try a juice cleanse this year:

1. Juice cleanses are not an effective way to lose weight.
You may lose a few pounds while on a juice cleanse, but only because you aren’t consuming enough calories. Even if you do lose some weight, there is a good chance you won’t be able to keep it off, especially if you don’t make any other changes to your normal diet after the cleanse. In fact, there is evidence that a juice cleanse may actually cause you to gain weight rather than lose it and could be dangerous if you have diabetes. According to Harvard Medical School, “Excessive intake of juice may cause weight gain and be dangerous for people with diabetes because juice is a concentrated source of calories and sugar.” If you think they are referring only to store-bought juices with added sugar, think again. Even juice with no added sugar has natural sugar from the fruit, but juicing strips the fruit of fiber which your body needs to properly process all that sugar.

2. There is no scientific evidence that juice cleanses detoxify your body.
Many juice cleanses claim that they will rid your body of toxins, but that’s nothing more than a marketing scheme. The human body already detoxifies itself using the liver, colon, and kidneys, so this claim is just straight up bogus.

3. Juice cleanses are expensive.
A standard 3-day juice cleanse can cost anywhere between $60 and $200. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could justify spending what I might spend on groceries in a week or a month on 3 days of being miserable drinking nothing but juice.

4. Juice can’t provide your body with all the things it needs.
First, juicing removes the fiber from fruits and vegetables. Fiber helps keep you full and helps your gut work properly, so it’s pretty important, especially when you need to digest all that sugar in fruit. Second, according to Harvard Medical School, “Juices don't have protein, which keeps us full and helps maintain muscle mass for a healthy weight.” Third, juices don’t have fats, which our bodies also need to function properly. You may be able to last a few days on a juice cleanse without any lasting negative effects, but you’re not doing your body any favors either.

5. Juice just isn’t as good for you as whole fruits and veggies.
According to Harvard Medical School, “Juicing removes the skin and insoluble fiber of fruits and vegetables. The juice itself has a different nutritive value and may not have the same health benefits as whole fruits and vegetables.” Juice isn’t the worst thing for you, obviously drinking fruit or vegetable juice is preferable to not consuming fruits or vegetables at all, but it isn’t as nutritious as whole fruits and vegetables. If you really want to consume all your fruits and veggies in liquid form, at least try making smoothies instead of juice. Smoothies contain the whole fruit or vegetable, meaning that you are still getting all the good stuff from the skin and the fiber.

So what should you do instead of a juice cleanse? Try incorporating more whole fruits and vegetables into your normal diet. I’ve always liked food writer Michael Pollan’s advice on how to improve your diet. He says, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” So this year, instead of expecting some fad diet to solve all your problems, choose the road less traveled and try making lasting changes to your diet instead. You may find it’s not as hard and much more rewarding than you thought.

"Fun With Food" Events Engage Students at the Library!

12/28/2018

We're two years into our partnership with the Chicopee Public Library and going strong! We recently wrapped up our fall programming, including a teen pumpkin carving contest, leafy greens-themed celebration, and root exploration. These events take place after school and are a great way for our farm to school team to engage with students and parents outside of the classroom.

At our recent "Root Exploration" event, children and their families got to participate in a variety of fun activities including a smoothie taste test, root matching game, posey poetry, seed observation station, and pin the nose on the snowman. We also made root view planter boxes and planted radish seeds so that participants can watch them grow "underground."

Our next event will take place on Monday, January 28th from 3:30 - 4:30 pm in the Kid's Room. We hope you'll join us for some veggie "engineering"! To download the rest of the 2018-2019 "Fun with Food" Calendar, click the button below!

Download the 2018-2019 Event Calendar

Pumpkin spice and everything nice

11/26/2018

This past October, students at Bowe, Stefanik, Lambert-Lavoie, and Litwin participated in our Harvest of the Month taste test and tried Pumpkin Spice Pears! Following the Mass Farm to School Network’s Harvest of the Month (HOM) calendar, we used local pears from farmer Joe Czajkowski in Hadley. October is our first HOM taste test of the school year. Students will continue trying new foods throughout the year until June, when strawberry season is in full swing!

Students tried these delicious cups of Pumpkin Spice Pears

Our Foodcorps service member, Ms. Kelly, gets ready to serve the pears to students at Lambert-Lavoie.

Thanks to the the overwhelming positive feedback from our students and staff, our Farm to School coordinator has made the pumpkin spice pears a menu item for school lunch in November! Bowe had the highest votes: 191 students loved it, 52 liked it, and 24 disliked it. Next, Stefanik had 152 students vote loved it, 39 liked it, and 38 disliked it. Lastly, at Lambert-Lavoie, 111 students loved it, 35 liked it, and 35 disliked it. Although votes were not counted at Litwin, there was an immensely positive response to the taste test there as well! If you want to try it at home, check out the recipe down below.

This is a quick and easy recipe to make at home!

November Harvest of the Month Recipe: Cheesy Kale Bake

11/21/2018

This month our FoodCorps service members prepared a cheesy kale bake for students to sample in the cafeteria as part of MA Farm to School's Harvest of the Month program. Click below for the recipe and be sure to check out these drool worthy pictures!

GET THE RECIPE!

Can never have too much Parmesan cheese!

FoodCorps members portion samples into 4 oz cups

Students sample cheesy kale bake along with their Friday pizza and salad at Bowie School

Dupont Greenhouse Coming Along Thanks to Comp's Horticulture Program

11/21/2018

Construction has finally begun on Dupont's new hoop house! Hooray! Students from Chicopee Comprehensive High School's Horticulture Shop, led by teacher Jeff Pronovost, are currently in the process of assembling the structure, which will reside at the front of the school outside of the gymnasium. Hopefully the hoop house will be up and running before the winter holidays! A big thank you to all the supporters who donated to our 2017 SeedMoney campaign and made this project possible!

Mr. Pronovost (or "Mr. P" as the students call him) explaining how the greenhouse will be constructed

Garden club students make sure they'll all be able to stand up inside the hoop house

Harvest Days

10/9/2018

By Kelly Zimmerhanzel, FoodCorps Service Member

In September and October, students at Stefanik, Bowe, Litwin, and Streiber returned to their school gardens to harvest the beets, carrots, and potatoes they planted back in June! These Harvest Days are part of the Harvest Days and Salad Days program that Chicopee Fresh has adopted from our friends at Backyard Growers in Gloucester. The program gives every student involved a total of three garden visits and two seed-to-fork experiences over the course of the year. For the Harvest Day, each third, fourth, and fifth grade class comes out to the garden for 20 minutes to harvest what they planted back in June, and a few days later, the students get to taste what they harvested in the cafeteria!

A student at Stefanik showing off the carrot they harvested.

A student at Bowe showing off their beet.

Root vegetables are some of the most exciting things to harvest, because you can’t really tell how big they’ll be or what they’ll look like until you pull them out. I love seeing the joy on the kids’ faces when they get a particularly big carrot or beet, or accidentally grab a whole handful when they were expecting just one. Potatoes are particularly fun, because when you pull out the plant, you rarely get all the potatoes with it, so I always tell the kids to dig around and try to find more. They get so excited when they unearth potatoes hidden deep in the dirt, as if they’ve just discovered buried treasure.

A potato in the soil at Streiber.

Students washing potatoes at Streiber.

The harvest at Stefanik was by far the largest, with 13 pounds of carrots, 34 pounds of beets, and 4 pounds of potatoes! Bowe had the second largest harvest with 7 pounds of carrots, 8 pounds of beets, and 21 pounds of potatoes. Streiber came in third with 11 pounds of carrots and 13 pounds of potatoes. Litwin had the smallest harvest overall, with 15 pounds of carrots and 6 pounds of potatoes, but even this was impressive considering the fifth graders did all the planting and harvesting.

Student harvested and washed potatoes and carrots at Litwin.

A few days after the harvest, students got to try the veggies they harvested in the cafeteria. For the taste tests, we cut the carrots, beets, and potatoes into bite-sized pieces, sprinkled them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and roasted them in the oven.

Roasted potatoes, beets, and carrots at Streiber.

The students were eager to try the veggies they had grown and harvested, and while a few students really loved the beets, the potatoes were by far the biggest hit. Students at Stefanik were the biggest fans of the roasted veggies: 118 students loved it, 47 liked it, and 45 disliked it. Streiber came in a close second: 70 students loved it, 33 liked it, and 24 disliked it. Litwin came next: 91 students loved it, 51 liked it, and 45 disliked it. The veggies were least popular with the students at Bowe, perhaps because only the beets and carrots were served due to a mishap with the potatoes: 55 students loved it, 45 liked it, and 65 disliked it. However, 95 students either liked it or loved it and only 65 disliked it, which is still positive.

Our Taste Test Voting Buckets. The kids love getting to walk up and cast their vote!

A special thanks to our friends Juniper, Kali, and Nick from FoodCorps in Springfield, who came to help us out with one of the Harvest Days and two of the Taste Tests!

Nick and Kali helping cut carrots at the Litwin Taste Test.