The Healthy Kids, Healthy Programs Summit is a yearly conference promoting healthy students and healthy school nutrition programs, and is sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and The John C. Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition.
On day two of the summit, Chef Tim Reardon from Chobani demonstrated Innovative Culinary Uses for Greek Yogurt. There are many delicious and healthy ways to incorporate yogurt into savory foods. Greek yogurt can be used as a substitute for sour cream, heavy cream, oil, and butter. Yogurt can also be used in salad dressings, dipping sauces, and marinades. In his presentation, Chef Tim showed the audience how to make a Chobani Ranch Dressing/Dipping Sauce, hummus, Mac n’ Cheese, and Green Monster Smoothie.
The Massachusetts School Breakfast Champion Schools, who served at least 20% of their students breakfast and increased their average daily participation by 35% from October 2012-2014, were recognized at the summit. Congratulations!
Breakout sessions at the summit continued in three topic areas: Continuous Quality Improvement, Resource Management, and Promotion and Marketing.
At lunch, Adam Brumberg, Deputy Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, presented his keynote on Nudge Marketing. Brumberg addressed different factors that can influence our perception of what we eat and drink. For instance, individuals tend to serve themselves more food when they are given a bigger plate versus a smaller plate, and children prefer more variety on their plates. Ways to encourage children to eat more healthy foods include increasing the variety and colors of healthy foods on their plate. Employing Smarter Lunchrooms techniques can also encourage children to eat more healthy foods in schools. For example, giving foods attractive names can encourage their consumption. Describing carrots as x-ray-vision carrots was found to double their consumption by students.
At the conference, participants created an action plan, to take lessons that they learned from the summit back to their schools and/or districts. This involved identifying actions to take, who needs to be involved, supports needed, barriers to overcome, and how to recognize success.
The Healthy Kids, Healthy Programs Summit was an inspiring two days filled with great speakers, sharing of information and resources, and new ideas for attendees to bring back to their schools. Visit the 2015 Healthy Kids, Healthy Programs page for presentation files from the summit, and view more photos from the conference on our Pinterest board. Find professional development offered by JSI here and resources for your school in the JSI Resource Center.
