Alaska fish could be catch of the day in Fairbanks schools
Published Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!
FAIRBANKS — Something fishy is going on at North Pole High School.
The school is the first in the district and among the first in the nation to try four new lunches featuring Alaska pollock. Every Thursday during November, students will be offered the fish dishes along with the usual offerings. Amy Rouse, director of nutrition services for the school district, said the seafood lunches are the same price as the other choices.
A student focus group took place at the high school in October, and based on the feedback, the November trial run was established.
And if the North Pole students bite, Alaska pollock could be the catch of the day at all secondary schools in the district as soon as the first of the year. District elementary schools already serve Alaska pollock lunches.
The lunches were developed by the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers, a trade association of 13 fisheries in the state. Rouse said the partnership helps the school district nutrition program achieve its two goals of providing nutritious food and food that students would want to eat.
The school district also is working toward using more Alaska-grown foods.
Rouse said a philosophical goal of the nutrition services is to keep sustainability and food travel distance in mind.
The association was started three years ago to improve the quality of the fish and make more people aware of how prevalent pollock is, said Pat Shanahan, the association’s program director. Alaska pollock is the most consumed fish in the nation and can be found in fish sticks and many chain restaurants’ fish options, such as McDonald’s, Long John Silvers and Taco Del Mar, she said. And the appeal is global. Shanahan adds pollock is the most consumed fish in Germany.
“We wanted to put a name on this nameless fish,” she said.
The association decided schools were a good market because the students can be discerning tasters, and the quality of school-lunch fish could be improved upon.
And what do the discerning tasters think of the Alaska Po’ Boy sandwich and the Alaska Baja salad, wrap and taco?
“We have received excellent feedback,” Rouse said.
The most popular dish among the students was the salad followed closely by the sandwich, an unexpected outcome for Rouse.
“We were surprised by how popular the salad was,” she said.
Out of 72 students feedback on Thursday, only one students said they would not pick the fish again. Thursday’s number of participants were also up from the previous week.
The high school was chosen as the test cafeteria because the nutrition staff is always looking for new menu items are good at encouraging their students to try new things, Rouse said.
Shanahan said the four dishes are just a handful of pollock recipes developed by a school nutritional expert. After development, they are tested in-house then it goes to a real tasting round — students.
When developing the lunches, Shanahan said secondary students’ fish wish included meals that were filling but looked like restaurant offerings.
“They’re just like adults,” Shanahan said of secondary student tastes.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Lucky kids!
Not so lucky in my book. Personally, I hate pollock.
This is a great move for our school lunches. Not only does it utilize Alaskan products but lets kids know where their lunches are coming from. This is a far improvement to the lessons kids learned last year about their sources of lunch (remember the largest Beef recall in history).
We have enough problems promoting the states economy and products. This is a start towards promoting our products with our up and coming generation, We should continue this, and try and get more locally grown food into our schools; this should be done by the state and not just by non-profits who are promoting agriculture in our schools (great job by them too). Not to knock the private efforts, but we need institutionalized programs in our schools promoting good food.
Besides the locally fished and locally grown issue...its just nice to see something healthy offered to the students of NP. When I attended NP High School they offered us burgers, fries, nachos and burritos...not even a salad or a piece of fruit, and wonder why kids are over weight (oh crap that just probably set off a whole new discussion)
I l-o-v-e pollock! I HATE you robbmeyers!!! Just kidding HA HA."HA HA" was an old expression before computer lingo that meant lol whatever that means.It`s just that i`ve been trying to teach my kids good alternative words "Idislike that or I`m glad someones eating it because that`s less I have to eat.It`s ok robb,I`m not "worried about it,---Just a little concerned.
later
It seem to me that the fish is actually FRIED. I'm thinking that negates quite a few of the health benefits. I do like the fact that the powers that be are trying to get more Alaskan products on the menu. I am sure that in the near future students will be able to calculate their own "carbon footprint" factoring in things like having local-grown food options. I'm all for anything that makes people more self-aware. I also attended NPHS, and back in my day (walked a mile uphill, both ways, blah blah blah) we always had a salad bar, bookkeeper.
Good job! Better food makes healthier kids. dirtlover- I agree that we need more locally grown food put into the school systems across the state. It would be a win-win situation.
Maybe the oil companies could take a lesson...;)
Heck, they use this fish to make imitation crab...yum. Bake instead of fry and you have a better choice.
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.