Healthy Fuel: GTACS program provides kids with nutritious snacks

By CAROL SOUTH
Special to the Record-Eagle

October 21, 2008 12:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- Determined to instill life lessons, the Life Balance Initiative has been branching out.

The Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools program was launched a year ago to bring healthy hot lunches to the four schools in the system. Processed, high sodium, high fat and packaged food gave way to made-from-scratch offerings that included local produce, meat and milk.

To keep the momentum, the program tested out "grab and go" sandwiches after Spring Break last year and the resounding success made it a permanent fixture this fall for student athletes, leaders and musicians at St. Francis High School.

For $4 on their way out the door to an extracurricular activity, students can take a sandwich, piece of fruit and water with them. Parents can skip the stops at local fast food drive-throughs knowing their student has a wholesome snack to keep them going. Students with meetings at lunchtime can also snag a sandwich and fruit on their way instead of skipping the meal or grabbing what they can.

As for the school's powerhouse athletic teams, long known for their winning ways, this year they have another advantage: high-nutrition fuel before practices and games.

"Slowly the athletic teams have been utilizing us; the moms of the football teams come in with a cooler and pick them up," said Michael Bauer, executive chef, of the sandwiches, salads and fruit orders he puts together. "We know exactly what they are eating, too, and they're staying away from processed foods."

St. Francis High School's kitchen was expanded last fall to accommodate the Life Balance Initiative. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan provided a $225,000 lead grant that helped fund renovations. The program also received a $15,000 grant from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

The GTACS system now also provides foodservice for Trinity Lutheran School in Traverse City and St. Mary's of Lake Leelanau. This adds another 240 or so students to the 900 participating this year at St. Francis, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School, Immaculate Conception Elementary School and Holy Angels Elementary School.

The larger kitchen also facilitated the creation of a catering service, which will debut on a large scale this weekend during the annual Gladhander Fundraiser.

"We want to model for other school communities and just help other people understand the importance of nutrition and learning and how they are tied together," said Brigid Wilson, a school board member and chairperson of the system's Life Balance Initiative.

Steeping students at participating schools in quality food and nutritious snack options helps them learn to nurture their bodies at a young age. In a culture filled with readily available treats and convenience foods at every turn, this education is crucial.

"It is laying the foundation for kids making their own healthy choices," Wilson said. "I have noticed that with my children, which is interesting to watch, if given free reign in the store they are making better choices: a granola bar instead of a candy bar."

"It's even spilling over into concessions," she said of sporting events that offer granola bars and other healthy options. "It's really exciting to see, it's so contagious."

Another component that has boosted the Life Balance Initiative is the addition of a Culinary Arts class at St. Francis High School.

Taught by Jason Maday, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who also cooks for the system, the first class has a dozen students. Later this month the students will finally get into the kitchen but Maday has been instilling the cooking basics, including safety and sanitation, in class since the school year began.

"It's a home ec class without all the other stuff," Maday said. "It is more important to teach these kids how to cook and give them the skills they will take with them the rest of their lives."

With a classroom full of college bound kids, the basic introductory course differs from a vocational-oriented offering he has taught. Maday acknowledges that the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District's Culinary Arts program already handles students interested in a foodservice-related career, his vision is not to compete with that.

Instead, the focus of the Life Balance Initiative's Culinary Arts class will be a holistic approach to food. This means that in addition to cooking skills and making quality, healthy meals, Maday will teach students about food production choices such as buying locally and how that impacts the economy.

"Introducing this mentality to a high schooler I think is very important," he said.

As for the next step of the Life Balance Initiative, ongoing education remains the key to the program's success. Looking at the Culinary Arts class, Maday believes it will expand as students integrate into their lives the healthy principles modeled in the lunchroom.

This learning may also span the generations.

"One potential is to target parents, that's a key part to the success of our program is getting parents on board," he noted. "The parents have to understand what our philosophy is and what we are trying to accomplish."

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