Summer is here!

Everyone is spending the mornings out and about - working on the gardens, walking around town, or heading to the Intervale. And that means hot, tired, and hungry kids in the kitchen at lunchtime! I'm looking to expand my sandwich and salad repertoire in the coming weeks. It's hard to sit down to spaghetti and meatballs after a sweaty morning of playing outside, no matter how much we may love them!


The Green Preschool is heading to the Intervale every Wednesday morning. It's a long walk, and they have so much fun it's hard to make it back to BCS in time for lunch. So last week the teachers asked if they could have lunch to-go on Wednesdays for a while. Yesterday I made them a few containers of cold sandwich filling with cucumbers, shredded carrots, diced cubes of cheese and a little ranch dressing, and packed it with pita bread, apples, and crackers.
I'm excited about this challenge, and plan to search around in my cookbooks this week for some fun and healthy picnic options.
I'm also making the switch from store-bought ranch to homemade. I'm trying out this recipe first, I'll let you know how it goes!

No-Mayonnaise Ranch Dressing from all-recipes.com...

I'm happy to be back...

cooking again. I had a terrific vacation but was glad to be shopping on Sunday for red peppers, cheddar cheese, quinoa (a first - coming up this week!) chicken, tortillas, yogurt, berries, broccoli, and a big bag of bread flour. Tomorrow we'll have tacos with ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, salsa, AND some fresh cilantro the Green Preschool brought back from their outing to the Intervale today. Delicious ~ thanks Emily!!

Lunch today was a school-wide favorite, good old macaroni and cheese. Peas with butter for the babies and little toddlers, crunchy carrot sticks for the bigger kids. Sliced cantaloupe. Milk.
There was a good bit of macaroni and cheese left over, but by the time I left for the day the teachers had taken care of most of it ~


We are busy planning our June Family Dinner for next Thursday, June 24th. Heather and I decided on the menu, but I'm thinking of throwing in a surprise or two....


And HERE is the recipe I promised last time... Baked Spinach and Rice! My husband stumbled upon this site a week or two ago- Cooking with My Kid. If you need some fresh meal ideas I recommend it. Whether or not you want to involve your kids in the cooking process, this is delicious, healthy, kid-friendly food. The truth is, all of the recipes I checked out looked great, but I was especially intrigued by this one. I tried it and it's delicious. It looks and tastes like it took a lot of time and thought and yet, it's easy as pie to prepare and has only five ingredients. You can even go ahead and chop up some fresh spinach if you have it and use that instead of the frozen! I'm going to adapt the recipe for lunch and put it on the menu next month.

Baked Spinach & Rice Recipe

Prep Time: 25 mins (mostly unattended) Cooking Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:
1 package rice pilaf
1 box frozen chopped spinach
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup lowfat milk

Defrost spinach and squeeze dry. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cook rice according to package directions and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in chopped spinach, cheese, milk and eggs. Pour into greased square baking dish and cook for 30 minutes or until set. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into squares for serving. Serves 4 to 6.

Take care!
Erinn

We're famous!

Thank you Lynn Monty for coming to visit us at BCS and writing a lovely article about our food program for the Hometown section of the Burlington Free Press!
To read the full article just click here.

I'm also excited because I learned a new recipe today that I think the kids will love, and that will make good use of any greens ( like spinach, chard, kale, etc) we might get from our farm share this season. I'll keep it a secret for now but it will be my next post, after my own kiddos have taste tested!

Take Care!

Squash Soup!

Here is the recipe for Erinn's delicious squash soup, served at our last Family Dinner. This is Vermont so even summer will hold a few days when soup is called for. Make two batches and freeze some, it reheats beautifully and can be thinned with water, broth or milk. Babies love it too.


Lunch Lady Squash Soup
Served at our May Family Dinner

(Food processor or blender required to get really smooth soup)
2 Medium/large butternut squash peeled, seeded, chopped into 2 inch pieces
6 Cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 Medium onion peeled and chopped
Salt, pepper, garlic powder
About half a cup of milk or cream (optional)

Place squash, onions, and broth into large soup pot. Bring to a low boil then reduce the heat and simmer until squash and onions are very soft and mushy. In small batches process the mixture in the processor or blender until it is very smooth , adding small amounts of milk or cream if desired. Season with salt , pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

Great News!


Last week Sarah received word that BCS will be the recipient of a three-year grant from the Vermont Children's Trust Fund to strengthen our food program!! We are thrilled because this will allow us to really focus on making the program super sustainable over the next few years.

Meanwhile, the gardening season has begun! The preschoolers have been hard at work planting the raised beds at the school

and the BCS beds at the Archibald Neighborhood Garden are finally filled and ready!

In addition to that, we will be participating in a gleaning program at the Intervale Center for additional produce a few times a month. All in all, we should be swimming in fresh veggies all summer long!
As one preschooler exclaimed while looking over the seed packets and seedlings in the kitchen last week.. "Erinn, we're going to grow so much you won't need to buy any more food!"

Hi!

Thanks for coming! I wanted to point out the Links list on the left side of the page - we have some good stuff we'd like you to know about.
First, where it reads "Donate Now"? Click there and you will find a great and easy way to donate to the BCS food program. Sarah has even set up some pre-set donation amounts with pictures and descriptions of what those dollars can fund. For example, $15 buys me a new box grater! $25 lets me upgrade to all organic fruits and veggies for a week's worth of lunches and snacks! $50 funds a BCS family dinner! And feel free to forward the site address to anyone you know who might like to help us feed kids great food!

http://bcslunchlady.winwinapps.com/

The CACFP official site and the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger sites are next - not the flashiest stuff ever, but great information about the work that goes into running the program, and the work that's being done statewide. I highly recommend checking out the "facts and resources" section on the Vermont Campaign site for some sobering statistics served up with solid inspiration to get involved.

Grow Team ONE is the grassroots organization that supports the community garden where BCS maintains 2 plots. My family gardens there as well. Photos of our work there to come soon so keep an eye out.


Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution - we love this guy because he's working on a worldwide scale to get childhood nutrition and the food we serve in schools on more people's minds, and because he's going into school cafeterias to work with the folks who actually prepare that food.

Last is a link to the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance site where you can learn much more about the Reggio philosophy of early childhood education.

Check out the What's for lunch today page on the left to find out about today's meal.
And come back soon!

a little background....

I thought you might want to read this wonderful letter to the editor of the Burlington Free Press composed by Sarah Adams-Kollitz (director of BCS and our fearless leader ) that explains a bit about what we're doing with our food program, and why it's so important. Enjoy!


November 8, 2009
United Way: Bringing partners to the table
By Sarah Adams-Kollitz
We are lucky to live in a community where access to abundant local foods is celebrated. Yet many families still struggle to keep their children well-nourished. One in 10 Vermont families with an infant reports food insecurity. United Way and a team of local partners recently piloted a program to increase participation in the federally funded Child and Adult Food Care program. The program allows child care providers to receive reimbursement for meals and snacks they serve and offers families the assurance that their children are well-fed while away from home.
The idea behind the pilot was not to reinvent the wheel, but to think creatively about how to breathe new life into an under-used federal program. By working with Child Care Resource as a sponsoring agency, child care centers were able to avoid the onerous application and receive support in meeting program requirements. True to the community's commitment to locally produced food, the pilot included weekly deliveries of farm-fresh produce, excellent gardening and food curriculum training, and the chance to work person-to-person.
As a member of the pilot, The Burlington Children's Space has been able to receive funding for our growing food program. Along the way we have learned that young children will try new foods when they are introduced by trusted adults over time. Preschoolers, who thought kale was gross, learn to like it if they can try it raw, sauteed with garlic, or baked into kale "chips." Children who resisted carrot soup are excited to pass out samples they made with the last harvest from their garden. Parents who once struggled to pack nutritious lunches with limited resources can now receive free meals and are invited to join in when visiting at meal times.
For our program, food is one of the languages with which children are welcomed to school in the morning and sent home satisfied at the end of the day. It has helped us create an atmosphere of abundance, respect and generosity.
In this case the metaphor of bringing people to the table to meet a critical need in our community has become a daily reality. Thanks to the Child Care Food Network Pilot Program, more children and their families are finding pleasure and nourishment at that table. Thanks to the United Way Community Campaign, any community member can play a role in creating a community worth passing on to our children.


Sarah Adams-Kollitz of Burlington is the director of The Burlington Children's Space, a United Way member agency.

Hi!

Welcome to the Burlington Children's Space lunch lady blog. I'm so glad you're here!
My name is Erinn and I am honored to hold the position of Cook at BCS. Through the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) we provide healthy meals and snacks to the children we serve, and as Cook I get to plan, shop for and cook delicious lunches for around 35 toddlers and preschoolers every week.

The BCS staff and I decided to start this blog to share news about the food program with the kids and their families, and also to spread the word even further about our program - because we're really proud of it!

Thanks for visiting and please check in with us often - bookmark, follow us, google connect, etc...
We will be posting often with updates, recipes, and great information about our program and food resources in our community.

Take care!
The lunch lady