Colleen Nocerini, SEIU Local 284 Member
"What's Jicama?" is a question Colleen Nocerini has heard from more than one student at Pilot Knob Elementary School in Eagan, MN. She takes risks--with fruits and vegetables. "Some kids have never eaten a kiwi, until they've had it at school," she says.
Her commitment to not only feeding school children healthy foods, but also teaching them that eating right is not only delicious but fun, is what recently garnered attention not only among her peers in dietary services in Minnesota public schools...but also from the White House. "There have been both state and federal officials who have visited Pilot Knob Elementary, and invariable officials have given high marks to the lunch meal me and my staff served them. They've raved over the excellent fruits and vegetables," she says. "And though nobody has explicitly said it, I know my lunches put us on their radar for this salad bar," she adds.
Nocerini's approach to school lunches is what helped her school to receive a salad bar from a school nutrition program launched by First Lady Michelle Obama. It's all part of the, "Let's Move" campaign to fight childhood obesity. Michelle Obama has embraced more fruit and vegetable consumption as a major plank in her efforts to improve American diets and combat weight-related illnesses, especially among children.
The honor of receiving a salad bar has so far gone to only 7 school districts in the entire U.S., and in Nocerini's school district (ISD 197) only 5 elementary schools have the salad bar. "Students get free seconds on fruits and vegetables at the salad bar," adds Nocerini. "And as long as they feel they get the choice to eat more, they take full advantage of it."
"Kids also like anything free," she says. "So I walk around the lunchroom with free samples of fruits, vegetables and other dishes so that they will just try different things." And the kids take their newly found preferences home with them. "I hear from parents that their child asks for something they ate at school and they tell their parents to make it the way I make it," she laughs.
Nocerini sees immediate results. "With healthy eating, and less processed foods and sugars, the students don't have the extreme highs and lows that come with such a diet," she says. "They do better," she adds.
Nocerini says she's trying to have a lasting, life-long, impact on students' lives. "I do my job well," she says. When asked, Nocerini says that ketchup is not a vegetable, but a little BBQ sauce on the bean medley dish she's concocted can make a rather ho-hum dish a real winner with the kids.
And she says the students know she loves her job. "They ask me if I like my work and tell them where else can I give one smile and get dozens in return?" But there's another reality she adds, "I'm still in charge of cookies."
This year, Nocerini is lending some time to helping SEIU inform members about issues important to working families and to get out the vote among members.
