VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Barnes County students will have a hands-on opportunity to learn about nutrition this year with new mobile cooking carts. The carts offer teachers and/or guest dietitians the tools they need to help students create healthy recipes in the classroom that align with state nutrition standards and benchmarks for health.
The mobile cooking cart project was funded by a three-year federal outreach grant that City County Health District (CCHD) received in 2018 with the goal of combating childhood obesity.
The project was a collaboration between CCHD, Valley City Public School and NDSU Extension. One focus of the grant was to enhance the availability of healthy foods in schools.
Cooking helps children make smart food choices, builds self-esteem and fosters creativity. It also gives students exposure to healthy recipes and by demonstrating how easy it is to make healthy recipes, the cooking activities can provide opportunities to encourage students to make healthier choices and eat healthier foods.
“Cooking is an important life skill and students are more likely to eat what they have helped prepare,” states Andrea Winter, licensed registered dietitian and ON THE MOVE Coordinator, “and the cooking carts give students unique opportunities to learn about ingredients and foods and how to eat healthy!”
Winter teamed up with Sue Milender, licensed registered dietitian with NDSU Extension to provide mobile cart trainings for the staff at each school. Teachers learned about the nutrition curriculum and recipes available for them to use with the cart and each school also designated a mobile cart coordinator.
Schools that received the carts included Washington Elementary, Jefferson Elementary and St. Catherine School in Valley City and Barnes County North and Litchville-Marion.
