School lunch with a local flavor

With more than 4,000 meals served a day in Kalispell schools, Jenny Montague’s new position as food service director for District 5 is an important one.

With a long list of goals, Montague has her priorities set on healthy eating.

“A part of teaching eating healthier food is providing it,” Montague said. “It’s absolutely our role to serve the food that we’re recommending in nutrition classes.”

This means she is working to offer more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, buying more foods locally and cooking menu items from scratch.

Montague knows this will take time.

She does not have plans to swoop in and remove burgers, pizza and nachos from the menu, she’s just slowly altering food choices.

Take the burrito bar at Glacier High School, for example.

Instead of setting out tortilla chips, beef and liquid cheese, she offers a more substantive burrito bar. She's phasing out the liquid “queso bueno” cheese, and adding choices such as beans, rice, and chicken.

Besides healthy choices, Montague is looking to serve more Montana-sourced products and “made from scratch” food. Thursday’s burrito bar had onions purchased locally and beans were made from scratch.

It’s a start to Montague’s goal of making 30 percent of the district’s food from scratch and purchasing 15 percent Montana products. With community and school support, her three-year goal is 50 percent of food made from scratch and 30 percent Montana products.

“I’d love guiding these changes but I want them driven by the community. I feel in so many ways food brings community together,” she said.

Montague has also worked with two Montana State University nursing students to coordinate student focus groups in sixth through 12th grades to figure out what healthy changes they want to see.

A nutrition survey was sent to Kalispell Middle School and results are expected at the end of the month.

“[The] kids have fantastic ideas such as restructuring the food line by putting fruits and vegetables first in the food line,” she said. “What they say isn’t always what they choose, but it is great to see them excited about healthier food items.”

Most of the meals served in school districts are premade/prepackaged foods that often have high sodium, sugar and fat levels, but is buying locally or cooking from scratch on a large scale cost effective?

Montague says it is. She wrote her graduate thesis on institutional food service in Montana.

“If you have people who can process and cook the food it can be cheaper for us to do it ourselves,” she said.

Costs would initially tie into startup, training staff and buying new equipment. Montague said the trade-off is higher-quality food and more satisfying work in the kitchen. Combining Montana products with federally provided commodities would offset costs.

“I feel it’s worth it,” Montague said. “In my vision it’s totally sensible and we can make it cost-effective. It just takes a little extra productivity from my staff and more planning on my part.”

Buying Montana products makes sense for certain ingredients, Montague said.

“We’re in an agricultural state,” she said.

Beef, grains, lentils, beans and cherries are all produced in Montana. Montague has worked with Montana FoodCorps volunteer Katie Wheeler to network with local farmers.

With Wheeler’s help, several Kalispell elementary schools have enjoyed locally grown snacks of sliced cucumbers, Dixon melons and Flathead cherries.

Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.