ARLINGTON, VA – Last week, USA Rice hosted a
training webinar for school nutrition and foodservice professionals to demonstrate how U.S.-grown rice can be used to deliver culturally relevant K-12 meals that meet USDA nutrition requirements and showcase the different applications for rice in school nutrition programs.
The live, sixty-minute accredited presentation, “Spice up Your Rice: Bringing Global Flavors to School Lunches,” was hosted in partnership with
Healthy School Recipes and provided a free opportunity for K-12 professionals to increase their understanding of rice’s role in school foodservice and maximize rice as a back of house ingredient while earning a Continuing Education Unit (CEU).
“The educational webinar is part of a series of school foodservice presentations that USA Rice conducted with Healthy School Recipes,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice senior director of domestic promotion. “This one focused on the versatility of U.S.-grown rice by exploring global flavor influences that are popular and accessible for K-12 school nutrition programs. Anyone can follow the link to access it.”
Cathy Powers MS, RDN, LD, a school nutrition expert, presented the basic elements of global cuisine and focused on consumption preferences of the target customers, Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, who seek out global flavors. Powers discussed how U.S.-grown rice makes it easy to meet the taste demands of K-12 students while at the same time allowing school foodservice professionals to plan culturally important menus that meet USDA nutrition guidelines for reimbursable meals.
Healthy School Recipes Executive Chef Samantha Gasbarro, SNS, talked about the proper way to prepare U.S.-grown brown rice and conducted a step-by-step recipe tutorial on East Indian Spiced Chicken and Jollof Rice, an African dish that lends itself to customization when prepared with different spices. She highlighted how rice can be used in a range of menu items across all grade levels, showed how rice can be flavored in a variety of ways, and covered cooking ratios and cook times of rice for school kitchens.
The audience of 393 registered school nutrition and foodservice officials gave an overall score of 4.4 out of 5 on a post-session evaluation, specifically asking for more rice recipes and more information on white rice. All webinar participants received a copy of the presentation 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.
“This presentation was designed to directly inform those responsible for feeding students across the country on the versatility of domestic rice, not only back of house in school kitchens, but also in meeting the demands of their students,” said Jacobs. “Gen Z or Zoomers are those born in the late 90s and early 2000s, and Gen Alpha includes anyone born after 2010. They have the most globally influenced eating patterns compared with previous generations, and rice is one of the few ingredients school operators constantly have on hand that can help satisfy student preferences while still delivering meals that meet the USDA school nutrition standards. This webinar did a great job of positioning U.S.-grown rice as a go-to ingredient for diversifying K-12 menu offerings and strengthening school nutrition programs.”