Kootenai students serve up soup
—Photo by MARY MALONE Kootenai Elementary fifth-graders Landen Lindberg, top center, and Khyrin Riddle, bottom center, helped serve soup on Thursday, prepared with vegetables from the school garden. The fifth-graders planted the vegetables last year and harvested them last week.
— Photo by MARY MALONE Kootenai Elementary students enjoy soup prepared with vegetables from the school garden. The fifth-graders planted the vegetables last year, harvested them last week and helped prepare and serve it Thursday.
— Photo by MARY MALONE Kitchen staff donned their Fuel up to Play 60 T-Shirts to serve homemade soup prepared with vegetables from the school garden. The fifth-graders planted the vegetables last year, harvested them last week and helped prepare and serve it Thursday. From left, Angie Hintges, Gayle Lord, 11-year-old Kyla Brown, Cheri Tenney and Teresa Kemink.
KOOTENAI — When asked to choose between lentil and potato soups, elementary school students seem to prefer potato.
The fifth-graders at Kootenai Elementary School planted vegetables in school garden as fourth-graders. On Thursday, a handful of the students helped kitchen staff prepare and serve soup made from those vegetables. The potato soup was made from the Kootenai garden vegetables, though the lentil came from Winter Ridge.
Cameron Barrett, 10, is one of the fifth-grade students handing out the cups of soup and helping the younger students decide which kind they wanted to try. While he missed out on planting the vegetables last year, he helped harvest the vegetables last week.
"This is my first time (gardening) at the school, but I have a little home garden at my house," Cameron said, adding he grows peppers, jalapenos, basil and cilantro at home.
He tried the lentil soup, he said, but didn't care for it too much. Since he was busy handing out soup, he had yet to try the potato which also contained his favorite vegetable — carrots.
"I just like helping people out," he said.
Teresa Kemink, physical education and health teacher at Kootenai, said the garden has been around for several years, but this is the first time the students have done a harvest celebration. Kitchen Manager Gayle Lord said she always incorporates vegetables from the garden into meals when she can.
"And it teaches them farm to school," Kemink said. "They can see the vegetables there and taste them."
Fourth-grade students plant, and fifth-grade students do the harvesting, so the current fourth-grade students will begin planting garlic and do some cover crops for the winter next week.
"It's a big community effort," Kemink said.
Kootenai Elementary received a grant in collaboration with the Fuel up to Play 60 program and the Idaho Dairy Council. The grant is focused on healthy eating and physical activity.
Kyla Brown, 11, a sixth-grader at Kootenai Elementary, wore a Fuel up to Play 60 T-shirt as she helped kitchen staff prepare and serve the food. After earning enough Fuel up to Play 60 points, Kyla became the school ambassador for the program.
"Fuel up to Play 60 is this really fun program where it's NFL sponsored," Kyla said. "You exercise and do all these nutritious things, you try new nutritious foods, and then you earn points for everything that you try."
When a student reaches enough points they become an ambassador of the program, as Kyla did, their name is entered into a drawing. When a name is drawn, an NFL player will visit the school of the chosen student. Kyla said she believes there is some choice by the students of which NFL player could visit — depending on availability of the players. When asked who she would prefer to see, Kyla said her dad is from Escondido, Calif., so her family members are fans of the San Diego Chargers. Therefore, she said, they would be excited to see someone like Quarterback Philip Rivers.
But that’s not the best part about the program for Kyla. She said the best part about Fuel up to Play 60 is trying all the new things and new opportunities.
"And the coolest part is seeing the little kids trying all the new things," Kyla said. "When I was younger I didn't like to try new things, but now that I'm older I want to try everything."