Students join tasting focus group to help select new school menus options

By Daria Bryja
Dietetic Intern 
 
Food service directors from across the state of New York, as well as six Baldwinsville Central School District students, got the opportunity to attend a recipe tasting focus group presented by the National Dairy Association North East (NDANE) on Thursday, Nov. 15. 

Two students from Elden Elementary School, two students from Ray Middle School and two students from C.W. Baker High School were selected to attend this unique and exclusive event. The event was hosted by Geharz Equipment in their newly remodeled building in the city of Syracuse. 

The students and directors got the opportunity to watch food preparation demonstrations and sample ten different recipes. After all the recipes were sampled, students provided genuine and honest feedback about what they had just tasted. Some recipes were great hits, but others fell splat on the floor. 

Some of the students' favorite breakfast recipes were a blueberry muffin parfait, which had layers of yogurt, blueberries, blueberry muffins and apple cobbler overnight oats. Popular lunch recipes included a sriracha chicken parfait and a buffalo chicken dip served with carrots. The recipes that the students’ enjoyed the most have a possibility of being implemented on menus in schools throughout the district and around the state. For the recipes that weren’t so hot, the students had great feedback on how to improve them. They came up with creative ideas that the adults did not think to make them better.

During the focus group, the students also had an opportunity to meet with a representative from Fuel Up To Play 60. They learned about the program, how to enroll and why nutrition and physical activity are important. The kids left with some goodies and smiles as big as their hearts. 

Make sure to be on the lookout for recipes that the students sampled on their lunch menus in the upcoming months. 

All the recipes that were sampled: Maple oats smoothie, pumpkin spice smoothie, chunky monkey smoothie, roger rabbit smoothie, apple cobbler overnight oats, blueberry muffin parfait, Sriracha chicken parfait, buffalo chicken dip, yogurt curry dip, three bean queso dip, chicken pot pie dip.