Food & Health Inspiration
pages. I’m staying present on everyone’s news feed. I post signage on our serving line advertising homemade items, because I want our students and teachers to know when my staff are going the extra mile. There is so much you can do to market your program. I know one child nutrition department that has
Pandemic Possibilities: Homemade! Self-Proclaimed Recipe Concoctor Valerie Weivoda, MS, RD, LD, SNS
Show, Don’t Tell!
Make Pizza with Us!
Talking about scratch cooking and homemaking food in the middle of a pandemic when most are short staffed will get you some eye rolls, but what do you do when the convenience items you leaned on are being shorted on your delivery truck? What do you do when your delivery doesn’t show up on time? What do you do with commodities knocking down your freezer walls with nowhere to go? You have to figure it out, right? Well, in all this “figuring-out”that I’ve been doing, I’ve discovered a few things. One of those things is that we’re going to have to homemake and scratch cook foods to get us through these commodity- overload and lack-of-hamburger-bun days.
pizza since before I came into the district. My goal is to get more of my other schools doing it. Now I know it sounds scary, and you’re thinking, how would my staff have time for this? Yes, it is a little more work. Yes, it does taste that much better. The benefit? When your frozen pizza doesn’t get delivered, you can still have pizza on the menu! Let me show you. Watch the video (right) to see Saltillo High School homemake pizza for 350 customers every Friday with 3.5 employees. For our gluten free customers, we purchase GF dough! We homemake our pizza sauce and ranch dressing, too. :)
recently started a TikTok page.
I encourage you to be present on social media, e s p e c i a l l y now when our students
Video
are learning and living in a more virtual world than you did before them. Staying relevant can boost participation more than you realize. I encourage you to homemake pizza next time you find out that pizza is being shorted from your delivery. You won’t regret it!
To amp up support for our program, I started an I n s t a g r a m page for the department so we can market the amazing
Am I saying you have to scratch cook rolls, again? No. But what do you do when pizza is served everyFridayand suddenly you’re living in a pandemic where pizza is unavailable for purchase and there are no substitutions? What if you don’t have a nearby company that can service you pizza or what if you can’t afford it?
xoxo Gal Pal Val
things we’re doing. Saltillo High School had been homemaking pizza for years and NO ONE knew! It hurt my soul that they were putting work that no one knew about. There are so many awesome things we do that our customers have never been aware of because it simply wasn’t told to them. That isn’t their fault. Directors, it’s our responsibility to tell our program’s story. I send pictures, flyers and videos to our media specialist to post on all district social media platforms. I make Instagram reels and fun graphics using free apps on my phone. I send information to my principals who can post on their school specific FaceBook
Valerie Weivoda, MS, RD, LD, SNS Child Nutrition Department Director, Lee County School District (MS) Growing up in a family of 6 children with parents and older siblings that cooked, I have always been curious in the kitchen. My love for food and fitness led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Dietetics and Nutrition from the University of Mississippi. During my internship I had a spark of interest in school nutrition. Now, as a director, I try to create and menu at least one new recipe each month, whether it be a taste test at one school or something menued across the district. In my spare time, I love to create my own recipes at home, prepare and review other’s recipes, and talk about all things wellness on my Instagram page: @val.weivoda_rd.
If your students are like mine, pizza is
one of your highest participation days, and let’s be honest, you need the participation. One of my high schools has been homemaking their
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