IDC grant helps school 'fuel up'

KOOTENAI — Fuel Up to Play 60 is all about encouraging kids to eat healthy and engage in physical activity, and Kootenai Elementary School is once again a recipient of a grant through the Idaho Dairy Council.

Because the program is aimed at keeping kids healthy, last year's grant went toward the school's garden, culminating in a harvest celebration last fall. Some of the older students helped make and serve soup from the garden vegetables, which was then enjoyed by all the students, and adults, at Kootenai. Teresa Kemink, physical education and health teacher at Kootenai, said this year's $1,000 grant was more specific, so it was used to purchase a new cafeteria table.

"So it's not as fun as doing the soup and stuff, but it still helps because our population increased, so it was actually perfect timing," Kemink said.

Kootenai Elementary did, in fact, have the second highest increase in enrollment over last year in the district, going from 400 to 422 students.

Along with the new table, the school got $500 in "incentives," which Kemink said includes mini-footballs, T-shirts, hats and more.

"We got to choose what we wanted, so I had the girls who were ambassadors pick what they thought the kids would like," Kemink said.

Sponsored by the National Football League, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Dairy Council, Fuel Up to Play 60 is designed to engage and empower youth to take action for their own health by implementing long-term, positive changes for themselves and their schools.

According to a statement from the Idaho Dairy Council, hundreds of schools from across the country applied for applied for funding to help them "jumpstart and sustain healthy nutrition and physical activity improvements." With a total of $123,317 awarded, 38 Idaho schools received grants to support their Fuel Up to Play 60 initiatives.

Kootenai is the only school north of Moscow to receive the grant this year.

Student ambassadors are chosen for each school that participates in the program. Last year, Kyla Brown, then a sixth-grader, was an enthusiastic ambassador for Kootenai as she sported her Fuel Up to Play 60 T-shirt while helping serve soup to the younger kids. Over the summer, Kyla and Kemink's son, 14-year-old Dante Kemink, had the opportunity to attend a Fuel Up to Play 60 national ambassador summit, Kemink said.

Dante, who attends Clark Fork Junior/Senior High School, won an innovation challenge and received $1,000 for his school. The money will go toward the school's breakfast program, Kemink said.

"And both Kyla and Dante are in this NFL video that is being sent across the nation to the different program advisors," Kemink said.

The 2017 ambassador summit was held in Minneapolis, Minn., in July and the summit highlight video can be viewed online at bit.ly/2xhNWAB.

Although the grant was not used for the garden this year, Kemink said the students are still growing and harvesting vegetables. Students plant vegetables in the spring as fourth-graders and then harvest in the fall as fifth-graders.

"It is really looking good," Kemink said. "There are a lot of huge pumpkins ... it's a really good garden year."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.