Frito-flavorful lunch for kids

By AMANDA TONOLI

atonoli@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

Fitch High School administrators were challenged Wednesday to create healthful and good-tasting meals with the students as their judges.

Tascin Brooks, district food-service director, said the idea had been in the works since July.

“I had a rep from Frito-Lay come see me. They wanted to introduce a reduced-fat, whole-grain Frito chip to our menu,” Brooks said. “I said, ‘Although I would love to do that, I would like to do a taste test first.’”

Through months of planning and a collaborative effort with Beth Stefura, Ohio State University Extension educator, Brooks obtained $2,500 in grants to fund the event.

The idea was to imitate a “Top Chef” or “Throwdown with Bobby Flay”-styled setting.

Brooks gave the contestants the challenge to come up with a recipe incorporating the new low-fat, whole-grain Frito product, a protein or meat alternative, one serving of grains, optional spices or seasonings and unlimited fresh vegetables.

The true test was making the meal tasty enough for students while meeting the national healthy standard of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

About 1,500 tested the concoctions during their lunch periods and voted electronically via Android tablet.

The winner, Fitch High School family liaison Nate Armstrong, made a pulled-pork recipe students could not get enough of.

“The principals did a great job. This item [pulled-pork recipe] is going on student lunches,” Stefura said.

Brooks said incorporating administration was her favorite part of the event.

“I loved seeing the principals buy in on the whole thing – kids see them participating in chef hats and Frito Challenge T-shirts. It was just a lot of fun,” Brooks said.

Stefura said she couldn’t get over the student interest and participation.

“I was unprepared for how excited students were. They were rooting for their favorite principal and creating songs and cheers,” Stefura said. “There was just a lot of great energy in the room.”

Culinary students from Choffin Career Center in Youngstown got to act as both aides and authorities while working with the administrators.

“It was a great collaboration of a lot of different entities in the county,” Stefura said. “It was truly a unique experience.”

Brooks and Stefura said they were invited to Columbus to present to the Ohio Department of Education how to best use grant money to provide nutrition education and more-healthful meals.

Stefura said ODE representatives were interested in seeing other opportunities like this because of the display of teamwork.

“It’s so cool that it started here locally in Austintown schools and we can take it so far,” Stefura said.