ARLINGTON, VA – Last week, USA Rice hosted an educational webinar for school foodservice professionals to demonstrate rice’s versatility in school kitchens and expand the use of rice in school breakfast programs.
The live sixty-minute presentation, “Expand Your Breakfast Offerings with U.S.-Grown Rice,” was conducted in partnership with Healthy School Recipes and offered a free opportunity for K-12 professionals to increase their understanding of rice’s role in school foodservice while earning one Continuing Education Unit (CEU).
The
training webinar built on information shared in last year’s webinar, “U.S.-Grown Rice: The Multicultural Kitchen Essential,” and focused on using U.S.-grown brown rice beyond lunch as a central component of both sweet and savory breakfast options that reduce sugar in school meals and meet federal nutrition standards.
School nutrition expert, Cathy Powers MS, RDN, LD, talked about the U.S.-grown difference and highlighted the nutritional power of rice. The current school meal standard requires that 80 percent of grains served be whole grain-rich. Powers discussed how U.S.-grown whole grain rice easily meets these standards with meals students love that can be produced within tight budget restrictions.
Healthy School Recipes Executive Chef Samantha Gasbarro, SNS, conducted a cooking tutorial on how to properly prepare whole grain rice in foodservice, and demonstrated step-by-step recipes for USA Rice Cheesy Sausage Breakfast Bake and Breakfast Rice & Pear Parfait.
Chef Gasbarro emphasized rice’s unique ability to bring additional flexibility to operators by serving as an ingredient for a wide range of menu items across all grade levels. She also highlighted culinary techniques from rice cooking ratios and cook times, to using cooked rice in hot and cold menu offerings, and flavoring rice in a variety of ways including seasoning the cooking liquid for a tasty final product.
The audience of 346 registered school nutrition and foodservice officials gave an overall score of 4.4 out of 5 on a post-session evaluation, and, based on their comments and feedback were appreciative of the content and impressed with its presentation. All webinar participants 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 school resources and how to sign up for the Schools Think Rice newsletter.
“Through this type of activation, USA Rice is able to accomplish multiple goals: educate those on the frontline responsible for keeping students fed on the tremendous power of domestic rice in K-12 foodservice, promote the U.S.-grown difference, and forge new relationships within the school foodservice space,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice senior director of domestic promotion. “With the current whole grain standards and the federal push to reduce sugar in school meals, domestic rice has an opportunity to play an increased role in school feeding programs. This webinar did a great job positioning U.S.-grown rice as a game changing ingredient to strengthen school nutrition programs.”