Students Cook Up Healthier School Food with White House Chef

Six culinary students from Chicago’s Richards Career Academy prepared a special healthy lunch with White House assistant chef Sam Kass in honor of the Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking Up Change, a nationwide effort and model to bring better food into America’s schools. The students developed the menu as part of a competition last fall.

The Healthy Schools Campaign, a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to advocating for more money for better food in public schools, challenged high school students in Chicago to create a school meal that exceeds the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s nutrition standards for the National School Lunch program while using ingredients available through the school food service.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a funder of the Healthy Schools Campaign and a leader in the good food movement, is helping drive the national conversation to ensure students get the fresh, healthy foods they need to learn and grow.

The healthy winning recipes; stuffed pepper with chicken, carrot quesadilla and fresh fruit salsa salad were prepared by the students with Chef Kass at Martha’s Table, a nonprofit community center for at-risk children. The meal was also served to House members and staffers at the Longworth Cafeteria and to 40,000 students at schools across the country.

The talented student chefs garnered media coverage from The Washington Post, CNN and the Obama Foodorama blog.