Area school cooks go back to school

Some local school food service staff went back to school early this year to sharpen their cooking skills by attending a 5

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Season Workshop hosted by the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative Farm to School program.

Guest chef and author Monique Hooker from De Soto, Wis., showed food service workers how to prepare and store fresh local produce to be used throughout the school year by creating a vegetable dish called ratatouille. The ratatouille was frozen and will be used in pizza for school lunch.

Research shows that transforming school food and increasing physical activity improves student health and academic performance, and lowers absenteeism. Increasing healthy, locally grown foods in schools is financially feasible and benefits the entire Northeast Iowa economy.

Cooks from five school districts participated in the training, including Decorah, North Winneshiek, Oelwein, Turkey Valley and St. Mary's School in Guttenberg.

For details about any of the Farm to School project, visit

www.iowafoodandfitness.org.