Denver — Wilder School District, in Wilder, ID, is a great partnership example showcasing how school meals can be innovative with potatoes. Once their school was identified as a salad bar recipient through the Potatoes USA Salad Bar Challenge to the industry, the Board followed up with Potatoes Raise the Bar recipe ideas, salad bar marketing ideas and information. Well known Wilder, ID, grower Doug Gross and his farm manager Rafael Luna helped assemble the Wilder School District salad bar. Luna has children who attend the Wilder Elementary School, and this is also the school Gross attended growing up.
The foodservice director, along with the school’s culinary class, used the Board’s recipes as a guideline, and made their own creations to help celebrate their new salad bar unveiling on March 7, 2016. These included “Mashed Potatoes and Meatballs” made from dehydrated potatoes, “Tater Taco Nachos” made with fingerling potatoes and “Purple Potato Power Pizza” made with yellow and purple potatoes—to show off their school colors. Potato salad was featured on their new salad bar.
Wilder is located in southwest Idaho and is primarily an agricultural community with some food processing industries that serve the region. Wilder School District is dedicated to improving the health of students and promotes a healthy and nutritious school environment. The school foodservice director and school lunch staff have steadily made improvements to its student meals, over the past few years, providing fresh fruits and vegetables several days each week. They are dedicated to meeting the nutrition goals of the National School Lunch Program.
The Wilder School District salad bar was donated by Wada Farms in Pingree, ID. Potatoes USA thanks this farm for meeting the challenge to raise the bar on nutrition for school foodservice with their salad bar donation. Wada Farms donated russets, reds and yellow potatoes for display purposes. Southwind Farms in Rupert, ID, donated purple potatoes for the “Purple Potato Power Pizza,” and red and yellow fingerlings for the “Tater Taco Nachos,” and for display.
Other school districts in Idaho also have received salad bars from previous grower donations. Penfold Farms donated one to the Teton School District 401 in Driggs, ID. With the Potatoes USA match, that’s two salad bars for this school district. Sun Glo of Idaho also donated a salad bar to School District 215 in Saint Anthony, ID, and their matched salad bar is also placed there. The Idaho Potato Commission has donated five salad bars which were placed in New York State. Which makes a total of eight donations from Idaho, and with the Potatoes USA matches, that’s 16 total salad bars coming from the potato industry in this state to date.
Students in grades K-12 eat over 5 billion school lunches each year, creating literally billions of opportunities for the potato industry to impact the way they think about potatoes. The Boise School Districts has recently requested eight salad bars for the Junior High Schools there providing more opportunities for the potato industry to help meet this demand.
For every salad bar donated by the industry through the Potatoes USA Salad Bar Challenge, the Board will match the industry donation. Sign up today and join the challenge or email questions to saladbars@uspotatoes.com.
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About Potatoes USA
Potatoes USA is the nation’s potato marketing and research organization. Based in Denver, Colorado, Potatoes USA represents more than 2,500 potato growers and handlers across the country. Potatoes USA was established in 1971 by a group of potato growers to promote the benefits of eating potatoes. Today, as the largest vegetable commodity board, Potatoes USA is proud to be recognized as an innovator in the produce industry. For more information on Potatoes USA’s mission to “Strengthen Demand for U.S. Potatoes” by creating positive change in the industry through innovative and inspiring approaches, please visit PotatoesUSA.com. In an effort to enhance diversity of the Board, USDA encourages women, younger growers, minorities, and people with disabilities to seek positions on the board.
Source: Potatoes USA
