Chefs for Kids teaches how to eat wisely

We can only imagine the reaction of the second-graders at Booker Elementary School when Crystal Momii showed up in their classroom and said she was going to cut the cheese.

Momii’s in her 15th year as one of the instructors with Chefs For Kids, a collaboration between University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and the American Culinary Federation Chefs of Las Vegas. As such, she visits three schools each week, spending 30 minutes at each to help the kids learn about nutrition and physical fitness.

“We bring food with each food group,” Momii said last week. “Nothing like bringing food to make people even more responsive. They love it. They absolutely love it and look forward to it. The teachers are always excited.” In teaching about the dairy food group, Momii brought samples of reduced-fat medium cheddar and reduced-fat provolone — pretty exciting for kids, for whom the most familiar cheese probably is American.

Chefs For Kids, celebrating its 25th anniversary, has grown significantly from humble beginnings. WWsaid it was born after the American Culinary Federation introduced its Chef &Child Foundation in 1989.

“They left it to all of their different chapters to come up with a way they could benefit the children in their community,” Lednicky said. “Chefs in Las Vegas decided they wanted to do some sort of nutritional education. They came to Cooperative Extension and asked who did nutrition, and we said we did.”

They contacted a few schools to gauge interest and got a positive response from the principal of Craig Elementary School in North Las Vegas. The program grew slowly over the years, Lednicky said, to the current 13 schools with school-yearlong programs for second-graders. A sort of introductory program, of shorter duration, serves first-graders at about 20 schools. Schools are chosen by need, taking into account the percentage of students who get free and reduced-price lunches, plus such factors as transience rate and school performance. Since 1991, more than 54,200 Clark County children have received nutrition education through the program.

“Over the years it’s been pretty good,” Lednicky said. “We’ve never really had a problem with having a school adopt the program. We’ve had a couple of schools who had to drop out because they felt like they needed to spend all of their time on math and reading.”

In the early days, Lednicky was the teacher, and she worked with pre-kindergarten through third grade.

“But it was difficult, because you had to come up with different lessons for every grade,” she said. “We knew we had to cut that back somewhat, and it was very difficult to teach pre-k.”

First- and second-graders seemed the most receptive, she said, because they hadn’t formed opinions about food. And second-graders were more able to read the Chefs for Kids materials. Within three years, organizers decided that that level was the most appropriate for the program.

“We get quite a bit done,” Lednicky said of the half-hour sessions. “We have different lessons, and each one kind of builds on the next one. There are several lessons on physical activity and several lessons on food safety. We spend a lot of time on the five food groups, MyPlate, determining healthy foods for lunch, healthy meal choices, how foods benefit them. And we always talk to them about the foods they have available to them. We try to keep it interesting for them, make it a fun class. If we can make it fun, they look at nutrition more favorably.”

They also give the children simple pedometers.

“They really love them,” she said. “They’re really motivated to get out and see how many steps they took that day.”

They also learn about energy balance — how many steps it takes to burn the calories they just consumed, or how a more strenuous exercise, such as swimming, will burn them faster.

Las Vegas Chefs, Lednicky said, does a breakfast at each school — for the entire school — once a year. They bring the food and volunteers from Nellis Air Force Base, local culinary schools and local food purveyors pitch in to help. The program is supported by a spring dinner and auction and a fall golf tournament.

Christopher Johns, executive chef at the South Point, has been actively involved with the program for about 15 years, and chairman for eight years.

“I had a good start in life, and it’s a way to give back to the community,” Johns said. “It’s a way of helping people that need help. A lot of these children don’t get a decent meal or education in food unless somebody goes in and helps them, and I enjoy doing it.”

In addition to the educational sessions and the annual breakfasts, Chefs for Kids provides Thanksgiving and holiday meals for more than 150 local families, serves a Christmas Eve breakfast and Mother’s Day luncheon to the woman and children at the Shade Treee shelter and provides Christmas gifts for Shade Tree kids and those from military families.

Johns said that as chairman, he tries to attend every breakfast.

“It’s a great feeling to see the little kids coming in and their faces light up when they see the chefs,” he said. “When the MGM Grand throws a breakfast, their chefs show up as characters from ‘Star Wars,’ which really makes the kids happy.”

Johns stressed that the chefs involved in the program are all local.

“When we say ‘Chefs for Kids,’ it’s chefs from Las Vegas who make their homes here; it’s people who live here and give back to the community,” he said. “Many people have been involved for a long time. Once you get hooked, it’s hard to get away from it.”

Lednicky and Momii said they’re motivated by the feedback they get. Lednicky said while she doesn’t often hear feedback from parents, she did a parent survey this year.

“I got some really, really positive feedback from them,” she said. “One parent said her picky eater was finally willing to try some different foods, and she was grateful for that. One said the letter that we sent home to the families really did make her want to go out and try new fruits and vegetables and introduce them to her family.”

“There’s not a week that I don’t have parents who see me and come up and stop,” Momii said. “One said she was a diabetic and has had a hard time helping her family to understand. This week, a parent who’s a teacher at the school said her son is excited about trying new foods.

“It just doesn’t get any better than that.”

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Find more of her stories at www.reviewjournal.com, and follow @HKRinella on Twitter.