Nashua Awarded with Cook Fresh Award

During the annual Montana School Nutrition Association conference in June, Nashua School was awarded a Montana Cook Fresh Award, which recognizes schools for their dedication to serving from-scratch nutritious school meals. The school scored an impressive 96 out of 100, which proves the excellence of the program as the average score of all 88 sponsors reviewed was 70 out of 100.

Nashua's head cook Vicki Tolzien and assistant cook JoAnna Turner have been working together for three years, ever since Turner took over the assistant cook position. "I was shocked, but very happy to have been awarded this award," said Tolzien. "It's very rewarding to know our hard work pays off. I certainly could not do any of this without my assistant."

Cooking for seven years at the Nashua school, Tolzien tries and keeps the meals fresh and home-cooked as much as she can. She also listens to the kids, when they are willing to give input, and pays attention to what is eaten a lot and what isn't eaten so frequently. A future goal of the cafeteria is to utilize the future school garden and greenhouse to supplement meals. "We would be able to have a fresh salad bar, and include fresh fruits and vegetables, all from the garden. Kids like to see themselves represented in their food. It gets them to eat more, and encourages them to try new things when they have a hand in it," said Tolzien.

Nashua School achieved a flawless score in the "Other Criteria" category, scoring perfectly on leadership, positive staff attitude toward healthy meals and scratch cooking; comfortable cafeteria; smarter lunchrooms; motivated to meet and exceed requirements; and attend a Team Nutrition Cook Fresh or Knife Skills Workshop. In the "On Site Meal Experience" category, they achieved perfect scores in food safety observation, and onsite observation of meal preparation. They were also scored on their menu review, which included creativity, ingredients used, scratch cooking, standardized recipes, compliant with meal pattern and menu variety.

Turner and Tolzien were happy to see the score card provided by the Office of Public Instruction, however wanted to quickly know where they lost points. "I was happy to know that we won and achieved a high score, but I really wanted to know what we didn't do," recalled Tolzien. "I'm so happy to know that our hard work does not go unnoticed."

This is the second year the Montana Cook Fresh Award has been given out, with Hinsdale School receiving the award during its inaugural year. The Montana Cook Fresh Award was created by joint efforts of the Office of Public Instruction, Montana Team Nutrition and Montana No Kid Hungry to recognize excellence in School Nutrition Programs and the efforts of food service professionals. Food service professionals and their programs are scored based on documentation and observation during their administrative review.