Summit lunches climb food pyramid

A recent hot lunch at Summit Middle School included barbecued chicken, fresh green beans, baked potatoes and whole-wheat pumpkin cake -- mostly organic and all prepared from scratch that morning.

Or students could pick from an assortment of a la carte items, including chicken-salad sandwiches, chicken Caesar salad and burritos with brown rice, organic beans and cheese. There also were fruit salads, granola bars, sugar cookies and various juices.

Some of the items students won't find at Summit: Bright-orange cheese sauce from a can, frozen chicken nuggets and other preservative-laden, processed foods that are common in most school lunch lines.

"It's a lot better than last year," said Summit eighth-grader Amy Lu. "It's a homemade kind of food and the food seems healthier. It's not greasy, fatty foods."

Summit, a south Boulder charter school, began offering a fresher, healthier lunch program in the fall, breaking away from the meals provided through the Boulder Valley School District's lunch program.

"We wanted to provide a healthier, more nutritious program," said Summit Principal David Finell. "It shows what public schools can do. There are other options."

He said the school spent a year looking for a company that could revamp its menus, prepare the food and tap local sources, choosing Fast and Fresh Food run by chef Connie Gordon. Her company has provided dinner delivery services in Boulder County for five years.

Gordon, after talking to parents, said she created menus with foods students are used to eating -- spaghetti, grilled-cheese and other similar dishes. But most everything is prepared from scratch, including salad dressings, soups and baked goods -- and there's an emphasis on local and organic ingredients.

The spaghetti, for example, is made with Muir Glen organic tomato sauce and served with fresh-baked garlic focaccia. The most popular lunch is the teriyaki with fresh veggies, brown rice and, most often, chicken.

Gordon said some students initially balked at brown rice, including one boy who had avoided it because he thought it would be "crunchy," but they've since been won over.

"I love bringing new foods to the kids," she said. "We like to sneak spinach in."

As proof the new menu is popular, she said only about 40 students a day bought food from school at lunch last year. This year, the average is about 225 students a day.

She charges $5 for a full hot lunch -- compared to $2.50 for a Boulder Valley lunch -- and provides lunches for free to the handful of low-income students at the school who qualify for the federal free lunch program.

A school -- or an entire district -- with more low-income students likely would need to find grant money or other subsidies to make the program work financially, Gordon said.

Up next, she said, is partnering with a local, organic farm in the fall for fresh vegetables and possibly adding a school garden. Another component of the new program is making it as close to zero-waste as possible, with containers available for recycling.

 

Chef on wheels FAST FOOD NATION Thanks to Connie Gordon, a healthy dinner is just a click away. BY REBECCA COLE WALK INTO the kitchen of Summit Middle School in Boulder and you quickly realize this isn't your typical school cafeteria. Spicy smells of roasting chilies waft through the air, combining with the tang of freshly chopped cilantro and chicken breasts still warm from the oven. Where are the frozen nuggets? The pre-packaged pizza? The mounds of mystery meat? Not here-because the chef, Connie Gordon, is providing the same healthy cooking methods offered in her home dinner delivery service to Summit's school lunch program. Gordon, owner of Fresh and Fast Food, was asked to head up the new program, which was designed in part to ease parents' minds about the food their kids are eating at school. Strapped for time and inspiration, it's difficult for busy families today to eat healthy, whether at school, work or home. “In a way, it's kind of all tied together,” says Gordon. “Parents don't have to pack a lunch because they know their kids are not eating typical school food. Then, when they get home at night, they can sit down and enjoy a family meal and actually talk.” Personal chefs and prepared-food delivery services offer a new option to the eternal question of “What's for dinner?” Around 8,000 personal chefs were working in the U.S. in 2004, reports a survey by the American Personal Chef Institute & Association. They predict that number will swell to nearly 20,000 personal chefs serving 300,000 clients in the next five years. But Gordon is no ordinary personal chef. Although she cooked her way through college and culinary school, she says she learned most of what she knows from her mom while growing up on a ranch in northern California. “I grew up on a farm learning where food comes from, so for me a big thing is that everything's fresh,” says Gordon. “My mom, she's great. I can't believe she did what she did. There were five of us! She had a garden, and cattle she'd slaughter for meat, and chickens, eggs - we did the whole subsistence farming thing.” The Fresh and Fast Food menu reflects Gordon's passion for seasonal ingredients and ethnic cooking. Products are sourced as much as possible from the Boulder County Farmer's Market and local producers, with Whole Foods, Aspen Grove Market and local distributors rounding out her weekly order sheet. “I don't purchase products until the day before - sometimes the day of - because I want them to be very fresh,” says Gordon. “My influences are just seasonal and natural cooking in every way possible.” Now in its sixth year of operation, Fresh and Fast Food has about 25 regular customers. Some, like Mary Lee Zurick, order dinner five nights a week. Others might purchase a few meals a week, or buy frozen, easy-to-prepare entrees that can be thawed and cooked at home. Some buy gift certificates for new mothers or for folks recovering from illness or injury. Zurick, who was laid low two years ago from a flare-up of rheumatoid arthritis, decided to give Fresh and Fast Food a try when her oven broke. “I cooked because I had to, and it was always a struggle,” says Zurick. “Plus, now I don't have to go to the store anymore and lug in heavy groceries.” Gordon personally works with steady customers like Zurick, developing “client profiles” so recipes are adapted to likes, dislikes, allergies and special dietary needs. These regular customers often let Gordon select from her “chef's choice” menu for additional convenience, rather than ordering online every week. Zurick says her family is hooked on Fresh and Fast Foods' meatloaf. “We also really love Chef Connie's stir-fry peppered beef with grilled veggies,” says Zurick. “And she makes a wicked cherry pie; my husband loves it. She'll send berry bread pudding for me. In the summer she makes homemade ice cream cookies. She's got us stocked all the way around.” Delivered along with heating instructions in biodegradable, cornstarch containers from Eco Cycle, everything is fully cooked and requires only a stovetop or microwave heating. “It really works for me,” says Zurick. “I just put it together on plates and heat it up, and then I can do the dishes and still have a little energy left over.” Fresh and Fast Food can also work for college students. As part of the Flatirons Meal Plan, an off-campus plan allowing students to use a prepaid meal card to eat at area restaurants, Gordon's delivery service is a perfect fit for those tired of burritos and pizza. Servings come in both two-person and party size, so students can fill up on healthy food while pulling all-nighters. A word of warning: you may get so addicted to Gordon's food and easy and convenient delivery service that you may decide to never cook again. Like Zurich, who hasn't bothered to repair her oven, says: “Oven? What oven? I have two microwaves now, I don't need an oven!” ALL THE FIXINS' A recent week of Gordon's entrées offered chicken sate with peanut curry sauce; shrimp pad Thai; crab cakes with tomato ginger jam; seared salmon with tomato balsamic glaze and Moroccan chicken with preserved lemons and green olives. If you're mouth is watering, call 720-946-6435 or visit www.fastandfreshfood.com. Entrees are offered in two-meal servings: $24-$40. Salads, desserts, snacks and breakfast items: $2-$16. Kid-friendly items: $8-$12. Orders are delivered Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Web site offers no-sweat recipes, encourages healthy eating Steering strollers with one hand and balancing Jamba Juice smoothies in the other, mothers Eliza Martinez and Sara Ipatenco already appear to have super mom qualities. But it's the launching of their new Web site, www.smarthealthforfamilies.com, that aims to confirm that status. Martinez and Ipatenco are twins, 28-years-old, with three young children between them. They both earned Master's degrees in Colorado, one in child development and another in nutrition and eating disorders. They write weekly menus, shop on a budget, adhere to strict grocery lists, and never cook with salt. While sipping smoothies one afternoon in Denver, the pair insisted they aren't super moms, just health conscience parents with some recipes to share. The site, which requires a membership fee of $20 per month, includes hundreds of original recipes, weekly shopping lists, weekly menus, exercise and nutrition tips and activities for children. The Web site also portions out food items according to age. “The dinners we feature can be cooked in 30 minutes or less,” said Martinez. Ipatenco also mentioned their recipes make enough for leftovers, which means quick and healthy lunches for the next day. The recipes are geared towards families on a budget. “There is a beef and broccoli recipe on the site that I made up when we didn't have enough money to go out for Chinese food,” said Martinez, noting that she's found it's cheaper to eat healthy than it is to eat junk food. Both Martinez and Ipatenco emphasize that the Web site is not about dieting and weight loss, but more about developing healthy habits. “There is a certain point when kids will have to start making their own judgment calls about food,” Ipatenco said. “That's part of learning to eat healthy, and parents have to teach them that.” Martinez and Ipatenco plan to add to their new site to help further demonstrate how easy it can be for the average family to eat healthy. Visit www.smarthealthforfamilies.com for more information.