Students at East Broad K8 School ate their green beans and spaghetti almost as fast as cafeteria staff could pile up their trays Thursday.
Four-year-old pre-kindergarten student Julius Mike-Harper took a bite out of a mushroom infused meatball then munched on the radishes that topped his green salad.
“It’s good — candy good,” he said. “I would eat that instead of cake.”
East Broad students were extraordinarily excited about their school lunches because they weren’t getting the same pizza, Philly Cheese Steak or Egg and Cheese Chef Salads being dished up at all the other elementary school cafeterias.
Thursday was Chef and Child Day at East Broad. Although their cafeteria food was prepared following the same strict Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act Guidelines designed to make school cafeteria food more nutritious, a team of local chefs prepared a special menu from scratch for East Broad students using healthy cooking techniques and local and organic foods.
The younger students got to wear paper chef hats and received a special treat from Gator Rivers, a former Harlem Globetrotter who has a grandchild at East Broad. Rivers did ball handling tricks for the students as they enjoyed their specially made meal.
Memorial Health executive chef Jeffrey Quasha and a team of 35 chefs and culinary arts students from Savannah Technical College and Virginia College made spaghetti and meatballs, green salad, fresh green beans, fresh fruit and angel food strawberry cake for dessert.
“The meatballs were made with a 50/50 blend of mushrooms and meat,” Quasha said. “It reduces the calories in half, reduces the fat and increases the potassium. The best part is the kids don’t realize they’re eating mushrooms until you tell them. The hope is they will go home and ask for more.”
They also shared tips with East Broad’s school nutrition staff so they can season meals without salt, avoid mushy, overcooked dishes and make healthier, better tasting cafeteria food from scratch.
Quasha, whose previous job was as an executive chef for a school district, said there are easy ways to make school lunches healthy and appealing to children.
“Given the money and the tools to make and buy the right foods, this can absolutely be done every day,” he said.
East Broad’s eight-member cafeteria staff feeds about 665 children every day. It may not be as easy for them to make 1,800 mushroom
meatballs from scratch the way the 35 visiting chefs did Thursday, but cafeteria manager Elizabeth Greene said they’re giving it their best shot.
“We do a lot of prep work in advance so it’s possible,” Greene said. “We would like to get back to some scratch cooking and use less packaged food.”
Jesiah Bryant, 4, said he appreciates it.
“Today I got this green stuff and red stuff and crunchy stuff, and it’s good,” he said as he licked sauce off his fingers. “I want the red stuff every day.”