W.Va. school cooks learn new tricks - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

W.Va. school cooks learn new tricks  - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -: W.Va. school cooks learn new tricks

Kate Long
Dozens of school cooks from 15 counties learn tricks of healthy scratch cooking from veteran Cabell County cooks Tuesday and Wednesday. Here, Alice Gue teaches them to hide carrots, onions and squash in a tasty tomato sauce.
By Kate Long


"You can use our red sauce in spaghetti, pizza, hoagies, quesadillas, lasagna, anything that takes tomato sauce," cook Alice Gue said. "It freezes well, so you can make a big batch, then you're set for a while."More mediaAdvertiser


ONA, W.Va. -- Eighty cooks from 15 counties packed the Cabell Midland High School kitchen for healthy-cooking boot camp Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Superintendent [Jorea] Marple is absolutely serious about making West Virginia's school meals healthier," said Kristy Blower, a coordinator with the state Office of Child Nutrition. "We're training 80 more cooks in July, then we'll put on more workshops in the fall."
In many speeches this year, Marple has made it clear that, as she told the Gazette, "The schools have a role in fighting our state's obesity crisis, and research clearly tells us that well-nourished children do better in school."
Cabell County's veteran school cooks showed them how to make more nutritious tomato sauce by mixing five vegetables into it: onions, carrots, tomatoes and two kinds of squash.