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Students prepare split peas in Second Harvest food challenge
BOARDMAN
Split peas don’t fly off the shelves of Center Intermediate School’s food pantry, but that might change now that kids know how to cook them.
Two years after establishing its first school food pantry at Center, Second Harvest Food Bank challenged fifth- and sixth-grade social studies students to cook an item that often gets left on the shelves.
“If we have a product available, and you don’t know what you can do with it, you’re less likely to take it,” said Kim Brock, agency relations and programs manager at Second Harvest.
As part of the program, students learned about the history of split peas and went home to cook them.
“Everyone got on board. It was crazy,” said communications coordinator Amy Radinovic. “We went through 25 cases of peas.”
Students didn’t just stick with classics such as split pea soup; they prepared split pea guacamole, split pea burger patties, split pea muffins and even split pea fudge.
Boardman’s food service director Natalie Winkle wants to take the challenge a step further by picking a favorite split pea recipe and making it with the students.
She even suggested adding a favorite split pea dish to the cafeteria menu.
Staff at Center intend to continue the challenge with different foods. Up next is rice.
“We want to promote healthy eating and make healthy eating fun,” said Brock.
Center Intermediate is the first local school to participate in the food challenge, but Brock hopes that others will also take part.
Just two years since establishing its first school food pantry at Center, Second Harvest now works with 22 schools.