Surprise! It Came From A Goat

Sixth-graders discovered a new cheese atop crostini, as a team of chefs swept into city classrooms on a mission from Michelle Obama.

Can you really eat that?

Daniel Batchelder, of the FreshPoint wholesale company that provides produce to the city school district, was one of a handful of chefs who showed up at the Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School Wednesday to demonstrate how to make fun foods with fresh fruits and vegetables. The visit marked the kickoff of the Chefs Move To Schools initiative, a concept pushed nationwide by the first lady.

Move To Schools was one of two new programs announced Wednesday at a press conference in the school’s garden. It calls for real-life chefs to ​“adopt” public schools, where they’ll visit, give cooking classes, and educate kids about healthy ways to eat.

After the official announcement, Batchelder wheeled a cart of food to Kristen Hebert’s classroom, where 23 sixth-graders awaited him. Step by step, he taught the class how to make crostini with tomatoes, basil and a cheese he introduced as ​“chevre.”

Click on the play arrow at the top of the story to watch.

Batchelder introduced the concept by passing out leaves of basil. Students broke the leaves and smelled them.

The smell matched the one in the downstairs courtyard. That basil is too bitter to eat, however, said Chief Tim Cipriano, the city schools’ food director. Batchelder donated his own basil for the demonstration. It was imported from Colombia, South America, he quietly admitted.

Under its contract with the New Haven Public Schools, FreshPoint agrees to buy local, which means within 150 miles of New Haven, whenever possible. Batchelder, a sales manager for FreshPoint, told the class that the tomatoes came from a farm in South Glastonbury.

Sous-Chef Nasher Watkins (at right in photo) helped place the tomatoes onto crostini, drizzle them with olive oil imported from Italy, and dish them out to his classmates.

Then the class sat down for the grand taste test. Batchelder counted. One, Two, Three … crunch!

He asked the class how it tasted. ​“Delicious!” remarked one girl in the back of the room.

Then he told them what was in it: The cheese they ate came from milk from a goat.

“Wow,” remarked Nasher (at left in chef’s hat). His face became serious, apprehensive.

His neighbor, Kyle Wilkins, laughed out loud. ​“You’re eating goat!”

Kyle said he thought the crostini tasted ​“good.” But ​“when he said it was goat, I didn’t want to eat it no more.”

Nasher said his reaction was, ​“Wow — I don’t know if I should keep eating it.”

“I finished eating it,” he said, ​“because it was kinda good.”

The chefs who visited Wednesday were just there for one day, but Barnard Principal Mike Crocco said he has recruited nine other chefs to visit his school throughout the school year, with one visiting the school each month.

The program aims to tackle the child obesity epidemic by helping kids find ways to eat more fresh vegetables and fruit. Under Cipriano, the district has transformed its food services, taking food-production in-house and introducing lots of more nutritious food.

Schools got rid of fried food at lunch and chips in vending machines. Kids started eating string beans, squapple and roasted chicken.

The district now serves no fried food, and ​“virtually no” processed foods, according to Chief Operations Officer Will Clark.

Health Heroes Sought

Eating better is one habit schools will be enforcing as part of a new campaign rolling out in four schools next month: John C. Daniels, Nathan Hale, Clinton Avenue, and Augusta Lewis Troup.

The campaign, entitled Health Heroes, is an initiative funded by Yale’s CARE (Community Alliance for Research & Engagement). The group has funded other health-minded missions around town, including sending teens into corner stores to assess how much healthful food was available.

The new campaign will set up ​“health challenges” in city schools, and reward kids for meeting those challenges, said program director Sue Peters. For example, the first challenge the group is suggesting would ask kids to perform these five tasks:

• Sleep for eight to 10 hours
• Exercise at least 60 minutes
• Eat fruit and vegetables
• Do a ​“mind-stretch,” like listening to music or looking at art
• Help others

Students whose parents document them doing those tasks five days a week, for eight weeks, will become ​“health heroes” at their schools. They’ll get their names written on a plaque on a wall of fame.

As a further incentive, students at three of the pilot schools will get free copies of CitySeed’s New Haven community cookbook, New Haven Cooks. CitySeed is donating 5,000 total copies to low-income families, including 2,000 to students at New Haven Public Schools. The cookbook was created with a grant from the state Department of Public Health.

Yale has paid about $20,000 to support marketing the program. Students will take on three challenges per year.

Schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo welcomed the collaborative effort and said it will fit into the goals of the city’s school reform effort.

“If young people are hungry, if they’re not eating healthy, they can’t focus,” he said. If they can’t focus, they won’t learn to read, read about foreign countries, or land a good job, he said.

Peters concurred: ​“Healthy children are simply better able to learn.”