STACYVILLE, Maine (WAGM) – An apple a day can keep the doctor away, but a good healthy meal can do so much more than that. RSU 89 in Stacyville is being recognized for its efforts to provide students with nutritious meals during the school day. News Source 8 Reporter Megan Waceken has the story
RSU 89 was one of four districts nationally, and the only one in Maine to be recognized by the USDA Food and Nutrition Services. with an award from the USDA Food and Nutrition Services. The award was for Innovation in Preparation of School Meals. Denise Tapley Proctor works in the school district as the Food Service Director.
Proctor says, “There’s a recognition award that they bestow on people when they do scratch cooking or work with more local farmers.”
Along with being recognized, Folks affiliated with the USDA Food and Nutrition Services traveled from Boston to Stacyville to present the food service team at the Katahdin Elementary School with the Healthy Meals Incentive certificate.
USDA Food and Nutrition Services’ Food and Nutrition Service Regional Administrator, Lizbeth Silbermann, says, “They are just a leader in terms of what they are making for school meals and making them more nutritious. And that’s something that the USDA is committed to do, is to support local schools for what they can do to improve what they are able to serve to kids.”
During the visit, Silbermann asked the kids about their favorite healthy meals served during breakfast and lunch.
Silbermann says, “My favorite thing to do is to talk to the kids and see what they like and how they react to the lunch and the food that they’re eating.”
Many of the ingredients used in the meals come from local farms.
Proctor says, “We are doing a community meal at 5 pm and it’s featuring all of their products like maple breakfast sausage, the garlic and herb sausage, roast chickens, hard-boiled eggs that are fresh and leafy greens.”
Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin says that the RSU 89 Community should be very proud of this award.
Makin says, “We’re really proud as a state to have this award coming to Maine. And here, they do such a good job with being innovative and scratch cooking making really wonderful recipes and you can see from the expressions on the faces of those kids how grateful they all are.”
The food services team at the school says the biggest honor is being able to keep the children excited about eating healthy.
Proctor says, “It means a lot to me. It really does. I mean my three children went here I went here back in the day and I started subbing in the kitchen when my oldest was in first grade. So to me, it’s just feeding our future.”
Keeping our future healthy one meal at a time. Megan Waceken News Source 8
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