Dan Gorman, food service director for Montague and Whitehall School Districts and Catering and Culinary Management Instructor Elissa Penczar, along with second year CCM students, have launched a campaign to support Cultivate Michigan, a program aimed at ramping up farm to institution programs. On April 28, 2016, the Deputy Under Secretary of the USDA, Dr. Katie Wilson, will observe the group’s efforts as CCM students prepare and serve their spring pea recipes to all K-12 schools in Montague, Michigan.
 
Wilson first learned about the program when speaking to Gorman at the School Nutrition Association's Legislative Action Conference in Washington, D.C. During that conversation, Gorman shared the details of the program he and MACTC students and staff had piloted in the Montague and Whitehall districts. This included how Culinary students are given a Michigan-grown produce item and tasked with coming up with unique new recipes to encourage K-12 students to try them.
 
After researching recipes and nutritional information, as well as hosting taste tests, the recipes are narrowed down to two and served to K-12 students. After hearing about this innovative program, Wilson asked to attend the next event.
 
“I am honored Dr. Wilson has chosen to visit our Cultivate Michigan event to witness how student engagement and collaboration with the Culinary program at the MACTC expresses itself in healthy eating,” said Gorman. “Students building a relationship with food is the best way to improve nutrition in our schools.”
 
The featured food item for April is spring peas. For weeks, students have been researching and testing recipes, starting with 21 dishes. So far, recipes have been narrowed down to Buttery Sweet Peas & Bacon, Sesame Snap Peas, and Sweet Peas & Vegetable Rice. The two final recipes are prepared and served by CCM students and food service staff at Montague and Whitehall School Districts on April 27-28, 2016. This is the third and final sampling event for the 2015-16 school year.
 
During her visit, Wilson will also have the opportunity to sample tastings of the student’s Butternut Squash and Black Bean Salsa recipe from the fall, and Katie’s Breakfast Cookie, made from cooked dry beans, from the winter. The breakfast cookie has even become part of the school breakfast program.
 
For more information on Cultivate Michigan, and how the organization is encouraging institutions to source more of their food locally, visit cultivatemichigan.org.

Stephanie Hoekenga is the Student Outreach/Resource Specialist at the Muskegon Area Career Tech Center (MACTC).

For questions about the partnership between the Muskegon Area Career Tech Center and Cultivate Michigan, she can be reached at [email protected].