When I’m not helping someone learn how to choose healthier foods, I’m usually assisting them in figuring out how to fit healthier foods into their day. It is a struggle I deeply and personally understand. Since not providing my family with wholesome meals wasn’t an option for me I had to find a happy medium on how to fit those healthier foods into my day.
I learned this, and my role as a nutrition educator, the hard way – working with peers and the dining dietitian, I began educating a year ago providing interesting facts, visuals, and fun food games for students frequenting the dining halls. It seemed that people were doing everything they could to sneak past our tables: acting like they were on the phone, texting, or maybe just staring over at us like we were from outer space. But even the troupers who did muster up the strength to stop by for some food facts commonly responded with, “So do we what do we get for stopping by?”
Recently, I found myself back in my hometown of Fort Kent, ME, serving as the caterer and concessionaire for a leg of the IBU Biathlon World Cup. While I was there I took my crew to visit Joey and Janice Bouchard, the owners/operators of Bouchard Family Farms, where ployes, the traditional buckwheat pancake endemic to northern Maine and Atlantic Canada, are produced. After Janice invited everyone into her kitchen for a taste of their products, the Bouchards took us on a tour of their buckwheat mill. We learned about the buckwheat plant–an herb in the rhubarb family–and we learned that their variety of buckwheat has a neutral taste unlike other species; best of all, buckwheat is gluten free.
Two months ago, I was serving as the caterer and concessionaire for a leg of the IBU Biathlon World Cup in my hometown of Fort Kent, ME, the Super Bowl of European sports. Biathlon, a fast-paced combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship, is the most-watched televised sport there (yes, above soccer) and an estimated 20,000,000 people tuned in to the races this year. To pull this enormous job off, my friend Kerry Luther and I called upon our best employees and friends, who traveled from all over the U.S. to work their magic and provide hospitality services for the athletes, the media, and all of the thousands of spectators who attended the races. For eighteen days we battled against sub-zero temps, iced-over produce and canned goods, snow storms, changing meal counts, frozen pipes, broken bones, and intense personalities; in the end, we not only survived–which was a feat in itself–we succeeded.
Want to get better food into schools across America? We do! Guiding Stars recently responded to world renowned Chef Jamie Oliver‘s call to speak to the USDA and raised our voices in support of new nutrition standards for school breakfast and lunch. We encourage you to speak up as well at Jamie’s Petition Site.
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