ARLINGTON, VA – Each school day, more than 15 million children get breakfast and almost 30 million are served lunch at school. It’s a sad fact that for many children, these meals could be the only hot meal, or the most nutritious meal, they receive all day. The men and women planning, preparing, and serving these meals are heroes, and USA Rice has had a long history of working with and supporting them.
Last year, USA Rice formed the K-12 Chef Advisory Board (see
USA Rice Daily, November 15, 2022) to gain insights and support these important programs of which U.S.-grown rice is an important part. On
Episode 66 of
The Rice Stuff podcast, available now, two board members explain the state of school nutrition, the challenges they face, and what they and their students think about rice.
Bettina Applewhite is a registered dietitian-nutritionist working at Baltimore County (MD) Public Schools – the 25th largest system in the country – where she helps plan meals for more than 111,000 students daily. Applewhite took an interesting path to get to school foodservice, and she shares this and her passion with listeners.
No more unique and exciting than the path Chef Jason Hull took from the Culinary Institute of America to Marin (CA) Country Day School where he is now the director of food services and executive chef.
“It’s uplifting and encouraging to talk to people like Bettina and Chef Jason who are so experienced, so good at their jobs, and so dedicated to feeding our children,” said podcast co-host Lesley Dixon. “They both spoke so passionately about what they do – it’s really a calling. I hope the kids, and their parents, appreciate how lucky they are to have nutrition advocates and teachers like them.”
A major focus for both Applewhite and Hull is instilling healthy eating habits at a young age that can last well into adulthood.
They both see U.S.-grown rice playing an important role in that since it is a whole grain, affordable, universally-accepted, and culturally relevant.
The pair discuss students’ evolving taste palates and weigh in on proposed changes to school nutrition standards that could see more enriched white rice entering the system.
New episodes of
The Rice Stuff are published on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, and online at
www.thericestuffpodcast.com.