Press release: Elida, Portales schools earn food awards

Portales and Elida school districts have earned top honors in a statewide Golden Chile Awards Program for buying and serving locally grown food, providing tasting opportunities, supporting student-led gardens, and educating students about the importance of healthy nutrition.

The awards program recognizes farmers, school districts, senior centers and preschools in a four-tiered recognition program – Seed, Sprout, Blossom and Golden Chile -- designed to acknowledge all levels of involvement in New Mexico’s local food movement. State officials will recognize the 66 statewide awardees at an Oct. 24 ceremony in Albuquerque.

Portales Municipal Schools, under the direction of Food Services Director Shaunna Smith, serves breakfast and lunch to 1,800 children every day. For years, Smith has partnered with local businesses like the Veggie Shack to stock salad bars with fresh fruit and vegetables at every school except the youngest grades. She’s in the process of connecting with the Foote family in Clovis to get local beef for cafeteria meals as well.

“The kids love the salad bar,” said Smith, who is passionate about feeding students so they can learn. “Watermelon, cantaloupe and grapes tend to be the favorite. We also serve a lot of green chile at the junior high/high school level.”

Community partners, including Caron Powers of Healthy Kids Roosevelt County, support the district’s extensive garden at James Elementary, provides nutrition education about sugary drinks, and introduces healthy items such as fruit-infused water. Teacher Patty Cain has been an instrumental garden partner as well, Smith said.

“Our garden has grown tremendously and is such an asset,” she said. “There are so many teachable moments in a school garden.”

Beth Fair leads Elida School’s food program and sometimes meets farmers about an hour away to expand her local food options beyond Roosevelt County. She buys a variety of produce from Veggie Shack in Portales as well as MTA Farms, a new producer for schools in her region.

Fair’s school earned the highest award in the Golden Chile Awards Program for their school garden, Fair’s dedication to scratch cooking, her creative taste testing and promotion of locally grown food. She consistently introduces students to new foods and invents recipes to avoid food waste. Recently she made lemonade and jelly from prickly pears she harvested from a local church’s cactus.

“I do my best to be really resourceful,” she said. “Anytime you can eliminate the processed stuff, the food is better for everyone.”

Rita Condon, who helps coordinate NM Grown efforts as director of the New Mexico Department of Health’s Obesity, Nutrition and Physical Activity Program, congratulated Elida and Portales for “integrating NM Grown food and activities in a way that engages their school communities and supports their local farmers.”