ARLINGTON, VA -- Last week, USA Rice hosted a training webinar for school nutrition and foodservice professionals to showcase the wide range of culinary applications for rice and encourage increased usage of domestic rice in school nutrition programs. The sixty-minute webinar, “U.S.-Grown Rice: The Multicultural Kitchen Essential,” was conducted in partnership with
Healthy School Recipes and provided a free opportunity for participants to increase their knowledge of U.S.-grown rice while earning a Continuing Education Unit (CEU).
The live
webinar focused on the promotion of rice as a versatile kitchen staple that helps school nutrition programs serve culturally relevant menu items that meet nutrition requirements mandated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and maximize school menus while minimizing inventory. During the session, attendees were reminded of the transitional school meal standards for whole grains, which currently requires 80 percent of grains served be whole grain-rich. Other topics included the anatomy of rice, the benefits of U.S.-grown rice, and rice’s ability to help school meal programs control costs, streamline inventory management, and reduce waste.
Healthy School Recipes’ Executive Chef Samantha Gasbarro, SNS, demonstrated the proper way to cook whole grain rice and conducted recipe builds for USA Rice’s Poké Bowl and Fruity Breakfast Rice, and talked about how essential U.S.-grown rice is to school foodservice as a core ingredient. Gasbarro spotlighted rice’s unique ability to deliver menu flexibility, customize menu items, adapt dishes to meet the demand for global flavors, and work across all grade levels. She also reviewed the different menu offerings domestic rice can be incorporated into including bowls, breakfast, rice salads, sandwiches/handhelds, and side dishes using USA Rice recipes as prime examples.
“This webinar provided a tremendous opportunity to help teach those responsible for feeding students across the country the power of rice in school foodservice, all while promoting the U.S.-grown difference and distributing USA Rice school resources,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice director of domestic promotion. “With the current whole grain standards transitioning from 80 percent to 90 percent, and school meal waivers expiring, U.S.-grown rice has the potential to play an increased role in school nutrition programs thanks to the accessibility and affordability of domestic whole grains. USA Rice will continue to invest in the development of K-12 resources and find ways to distribute those assets that position U.S.-grown rice as a versatile go-to ingredient as we did in this webinar with Healthy School Recipes.”
The audience of 266 registered school foodservice officials were both receptive and appreciative of the training, and gave an overall score of 4.4 out of 5 on a post-session evaluation.
Webinar attendees received a copy of the slide deck and recording of the training session to share with their colleagues, as well as information on USA Rice’s K-12 foodservice resources and how to sign up for the
Schools Think Rice newsletter.