Welcome to 2020!

Hi folks,

We hope everyone is well rested after February vacation! It’s been a couple of months since we’ve connected via newsletter, and we want to make sure we’re featuring the great work happening in our department across the district. March is coming up, and we’re excited to celebrate so much - National Nutrition Month, National School Breakfast Week, and World Language Week. We play a significant part in the health and wellbeing of the students we feed breakfast, snack, and lunch every day. Many of them depend on these meals for sustenance and adequate nutrition. Remember why you continue to come to work. To see the smiling faces of students with their fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains and protein on their tray, thanking you for their house made meal.

Your friendly neighborhood dietitian,

Shennie Quintanilla

Retirement, Separations & Substitutes!

Our sincerest gratitude and love to Maria Perez, who retires after 13 wonderful years with the department. She has served at various kitchens, being the right hand woman to many heads of kitchens, ultimately completed her time at the new King Open school.

Rupna Barua (G&P) parted ways with us earlier this month, and Darlene Geigel (King) will be separating as a provisional employee in the coming weeks. Best of luck to them! Thank you to FMA staff member Cheryl Gillis for recruiting a new member of our team - Rachel Moses! Anthony will be joining FMA in the next few weeks to help with prep! Along with Rachel, we welcome Erin Higgins, and Marlene Menezes to the crew.

We are running VERY low on substitutes in our department. With more illnesses and injuries occurring, please be mindful of appropriate hand washing techniques and creating a safe environment for staff. If you know of someone who will be great in our department and is looking for a per diem/part time gig, please send them our way! Online application can be found here >> 

Vendor Spotlight: 88 Acres

88 Acres is a growing food company in Boston creating seed-based foods from scratch in our dedicated, inner-city bakery. Our co-founders are a husband and wife team of Rob Dalton and Nicole Ledoux who started baking the first batch of 88 Acres bars because they struggled to find any bars in the grocery store that met their needs -- a nut-free bar made with wholesome, minimally processed ingredients that tasted good, that they would both feel good about eating.

Our foods are inspired by Nicole’s roots, growing up on an 88-acre organic vegetable farm in central Massachusetts. All of our foods are free-from the most common food allergens, but are so delicious that everyone can enjoy them.

In addition to the line of seed bars and seed butters you can find on the shelves of Whole Foods, Star Market, Stop & Shop, Wegmans, Roche Brothers, and Market Basket, we also create an exclusive line of bars for schools like Cambridge Public Schools. Our K-12 bars were developed collaboratively with Massachusetts school districts, who shared their needs for a packaged breakfast bar and helped us ensure kids would enjoy what we created. The blend of millet and gluten-free oats in our bars packs a protein punch that helps keep students full and also helps schools serve a complete, nutritious, and reimbursable breakfast.

Our school bars are full of wonderful nutrition from minimally processed ingredients. Instead of using flour or camouflaged ingredients, we use whole millet and whole oats. We hope that our bars can help encourage the next generation of eaters to enjoy more whole foods in a convenient, grab and go package.

Birthdays!

We want to wish a happy birthday over the past few months and the next. We hope you enjoyed quality time treating yo’self!

January - Elisa Vasquez (Morse), Frantz Antoine (Morse), Halwo Hussein (Tobin), Anita Davis (Amigos), Sharon Douglas (Haggerty), Shennie Quintanilla

February - Charron Alives (CRLS), Ricardo Rodriguez (FMA), Kathleen Burke (G&P), Consuelo Rodriguez (Tobin)

March - Rafaela Rivera (Peabody), Van Quach (CRLS), Mellissa Honeywood

Training Opportunities

Our next Staff Training will be held on Wednesday, March 18th. This will be for ALL part time and full time staff (optional for substitutes). Please remember to mark your calendars and not to book doctor appointments between 2 to 4PM to attend this meeting. More information will be sent out in the next week with further details.

One of the focus areas for Cambridge Public Schools is Equity & Access. If you’re looking for an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of racism and raise your awareness of racial equity, the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge is coming up! From March 30th - April 19th, you’ll receive an email prompt and short reading/audio/video file which will take ~10-15 minutes to go over thoughtful prompts, which can be discussed in online forums provided. Empower yourself with the 21 Day Racial Equity Challenge here >>

National School Breakfast Week is Coming Up!

We are looking forward to celebrating School Breakfast Week next week! Parents and adults can join in for $1 at breakfast during this special week ONLY. A World Food Tour will be held at select schools during the week at breakfast time at select schools. Cultural dishes will be featured during lunch each day to celebrate World Language Week.

If you take pride in your breakfast creations this week, please take photos and send them to Shennie Quintanilla ([email protected]). We want others in our community to see it on social media and see what we’re proud of!

Happy National Nutrition Month!

Did you know that most of the added sugar we consume actually comes from sugary drinks? The sports drinks, energy drinks, sodas, frozen drinks (Coolatas, Slurpees, etc.) and coffee drinks really add up. Focus on milk, fortified milk-alternatives, and tap water for your best health! Small changes can really add up, so start shifting habits today.

For more on how to spot added-sugar, click here >>
Click here on how to find added-sugars on the food label >>

Got Anything to Share?

Do you have pictures or a story you want to share from your kitchen in the newsletter? Email Shennie at [email protected]!

Stay in Touch with Daily Updates...

...on the school menu and behind-the-scenes school meal photos.

Follow us on Twitter @CPSD_Nutrition! >> 

NEW! Follow us on INSTAGRAM @cpsd_nutrition! >>