Cole, Ryan S., Ryan M., Sam, Isabel, Dora Bei, and Connor were part of Ben-Hem’s RECIPES FOR HEALTHY KIDS TEAM. RECIPES FOR HEALTHY KIDS is a national contest to come up with tasty and nutritious recipes for school lunch. A Grand prize winner will win $3,000 for use by the school food service.

We worked with Mr. Marshall,  the food service director, chef Ryan McDonald, and Ms. Cappellano, a dietitian, and came up with  two recipes:  Carrots with cinnamon and orange juice, and zesty pink lentil salad. Ben-Hem third and fourth graders had a chance to taste both of  these dishes during their lunch periods.  Students were asked to fill out a survey about what they thought of each dish – did they like it and why?, what did they like/dislike and suggestions on how the chef could improve the dish. They were also asked for suggestions for naming the dishes.

Some students like the carrots because they were sweet. Others thought they were too sweet. If they liked cinnamon, they liked the carrots, if they disliked cinnamon the carrots did not appeal to them. Some students liked the lentil dish because it was crunchy. We submitted the lentil recipe to the dry beans and peas category. There were 264 other recipes submitted in this category.

Recipes were judged from January 1 through February 28, 2011 according to the following criteria:

• STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
• NUTRITION
• CREATIVITY AND ORIGINALITY
• EASE OF USE IN SCHOOL FOOD SERVICE AND PRESENTATION (We submitted a photo of the lentil dish.)

The top ten contestants in each category will have their recipes published in a RECIPES FOR HEALTHY KIDS cookbook and will receive recognition for their recipe.  Judges will name fifteen semi-finalists  – the five top recipes in each category  in early March and will visit the semi-finalist schools.

Check out information about this contest on the web at: www.recipesforkidschallenge.com. Stay tuned for the announcement of the 15 semi-finalists!

There are certain things that  a person needs to learn throughout their lifetime. Sportsmanship is a great thing needed to be learned by every human being. If you lose at a game or get a problem wrong, you don’t tell people that they can’t do it just because you can’t. Maybe another person does something right, you wouldn’t be mad at them; you would simply give them a high five or congratulate that person. if you have good sportsmanship then you could make lots more friends. When you have sportsmanship, you could become a better person. When ever you do an activity, just think of sportsmanship when you’re doing it.

Derek, Daniel, and Pat

Grade 4, Ben-Hem