{"id":11748,"date":"2012-09-28T12:50:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T16:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=11748"},"modified":"2012-09-28T12:50:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T16:50:16","slug":"hillendale-students-learn-to-cook-for-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=11748","title":{"rendered":"Hillendale students learn to ‘cook for real’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students participate in healthy cooking and nutrition program<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Suzanne Misciagna<\/strong>, Correspondent, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yvonne Post, Founder of Cooking for Real, helps Hillendale third graders prepare pancakes during the hands-on cooking and nutrition demonstration.<\/p><\/div>\n

PENNSBURY \u2013 The start of the school day on Thursday was a bit unusual for third graders at Hillendale Elementary School in the Unionville Chadds-Ford School District. Once the school bell rang and morning announcements were made, one of their first classes was learning how to make and taste some of the flavors of fall.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all part of the Cooking for Real program \u2013 a hands-on cooking and nutrition demonstration led by Cooking for Real founder, Yvonne Post. The program, which began in 2005, teaches whole food nutrition and creating delicious and nutritious meals that any home cook can prepare.<\/p>\n

Post, a former Holistic Health Counselor and educator, teaches her hands-on cooking and nutrition workshops for kids and adults alike in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is a personal thing,\u201d says Post. \u201cMany people are reluctant to try a new food. Our goal is to show how easy it is to use fresh, local ingredients to create recipes that are full of flavor and prepared in as little as 30 to 40 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The menu item of the day for Hillendale students was squash pancakes. With each ingredient, students learned where the food came from and how it affects the body. Students took turns mixing the pancake batter (while singing the \u2018Shake, Shake, Shake Your Pancake\u2019 song), flipping the pancakes, and the best part \u2013 eating them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved mixing the pancake batter and singing the song,\u201d says third-grader Jenna O\u2019Neill. \u201cI learned a lot too. I never knew that some sugars can be good for you or that the calcium in milk comes from the grass that the cows eat,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

Post\u2019s visit to Hillendale is a reflection of the school and the district\u2019s commitment to wellness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want kids to know about the farmers in our community and where our food comes from,\u201d says Maia Walter, Hillendale\u2019s school nurse. \u201cWe also want kids to try different foods,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

The staff at Hillendale has a few tricks of their own in helping kids be healthy eaters. Once a month, Hillendale offers a Fruit Adventure Club where a group of students try a sampling of fruits that they may not necessarily find in their local grocery store. Also, during the month of March, the cafeteria serves green \u2018mystery\u2019 smoothies with prizes given out for students who guess the correct ingredients. And, during the holidays, students get to read a holiday book while sampling foods from that book.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything in our society today focuses on dieting,\u201d says Post. \u201cBut, a diet is really what we put into our bodies every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Post hopes her cooking program will help kids taste food for themselves and make their own decision as to whether they like it or not. Judging from the smiles on the students\u2019 faces, the squash pancakes passed the test.<\/p>\n

According to Post, \u201cIt\u2019s great to introduce someone to a food they may have never tried before and hear them say, \u201cWow\u2026 It\u2019s better than I thought it would be!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students participate in healthy cooking and nutrition program By Suzanne Misciagna, Correspondent, The Times PENNSBURY \u2013 The start of the school day on Thursday was a bit unusual for third graders at Hillendale Elementary School in the Unionville Chadds-Ford School District. Once the school bell rang and morning announcements were made, one of their first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16],"tags":[1983,1027,1982,1984],"class_list":["post-11748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-schools","tag-cooking-for-lreal","tag-education","tag-hillendale-elementary-school","tag-school-programs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}