Cooking moose roast and taste testing local produce?! A national awards program is recognizing the creative steps (big and small!) that schools are taking to improve school nutrition for students.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) announced the first Healthy Meals Incentives Recognition Awards for trailblazing and innovative work in improving the school meals programs in two school districts: Clear Lake Community School District in Iowa and Petersburg School District in Alaska. These first two awards are the first of many that will be announced throughout the year, with rolling applications open to all school food authorities (SFA) within the U.S.

Clear Lake is being recognized as a ‘Lunch Trailblazer’ for reducing sodium in their menu items through creative strategies such as sourcing low- or no-sodium products, increasing the use of fresh local foods, and enhancing flavors with custom spice blends. 

“We’ve been hosting monthly taste tests for our students, which feature locally grown foods,” says Julie Udelhofen, food service director at Clear Lake Community School District. “These events are a wonderful opportunity to introduce our students to new produce items as well as show our students that their opinions matter to us.” 

Petersburg has received the “Innovation in the Preparation of School Meals” award for their commitment to creating scratch and semi-scratch foods that incorporate local and culturally relevant ingredients like moose meat, carrots, herring eggs and kale.

“We recently had Petersburg Indian Association come in to the culinary classes to help the students prepare moose roasts and a moose stock gravy,” says Carlee Johnson McIntosh, Food at Petersburg School District. “Then, we had a lunch taste testing of the moose roasts and moose gravy for our students.”

Clear Lake Community School District and Petersburg School District, along with more than 260 other small and/or rural school districts, also received HMI grants last summer, to enhance the nutritional quality of their school meals. 

“Action for Healthy Kids and the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service would like to congratulate both the Clear Lake Community School District and Petersburg School District on the progress they’ve made in their nutrition programs this year,” said Rob Bisceglie, CEO of Action for Healthy Kids. “We applaud the staff who have worked hard to prepare fresh, appealing and delicious meals for their students.”