Houghton-Portage Township Schools paraprofessional Lily Venable taught children at the Meet Up and Eat Up how to make healthy snacks while their families waited in line for the food distribution. While food distribution is the primary goal of the Meet Up and Eat Up program, HPTS food service director Shelby Turnquist wanted to include an educational aspect and get children interested in healthy foods. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Food was distributed to multiple families and a cooking demonstration put on at Houghton Elementary School on Wednesday as part of the Meet Up and Eat Up. The federally funded program is for children up to 18 years old, along with those mentally or physically disabled up to 26 years old, and who are involved in an educational program. They could receive fresh and healthy food. There are no income limits to the program, which continues Wednesdays until Aug. 20.

1,037 children were signed up for the program, coming from 438 families. Food waiting to be distributed filled several rooms within the school for families coming through with shopping carts. The food available is meant to be fresh and healthy, and this is achieved by the produce of seven local farmers, the Department of Defense and USDA.

Local farmers’ produce is sometimes as fresh as two hours since harvest and is delivered from as close as Calumet and as far as Trout Creek. The amount of produce is dependent on availability per week, and some weeks may provide families one produce and others five. Federal funds which go to the school are then transferred to the farmers.

Items which are available to families can include a wide range of fruits and vegetables, breakfast items like cereal and pancake mixes, chicken patties and a gallon of milk. Houghton-Portage Township Schools (HPTS) food service director Shelby Turnquist said the availability of fresh and healthy food can sometimes be difficult in rural areas.

“I think there’s challenges in getting more of the fresh product up here from other parts of Michigan,” she said. “Where like in downstate, they can go to Cherry Capital and get fresh cherries off the tree and everything. But our farmers and school and community have really banded together in the last five years to make this program work. It’s all of us working together.”

Turnquist began running the program at the school in 2020 and has kept it going since then. She is active in her role at the school with starting produce groups for students during the school year and educating the students on nutritional health.

“I’ve always had a passion for the kids,” she said. “This is my 34th year doing this. I could have retired five years ago, and I’m here for the kids that are coming in my office and all excited because we’ve got radishes on the salad bar today, and I love the glow in their eyes because they’re just there for taking in information. We’ve got to be here to teach them.”

She believes it is important to begin children’s exposure to healthy eating as young as possible and brings that educational aspect to the event with the cooking demonstration. HPTS paraprofessional Lily Venable stood outside the school entrance with educational sheets on healthy cooking and recipes and a toaster oven as she taught children how to make kale chips. Venable took kale and coated it with some olive oil, Montreal steak seasoning and parmesan. She then placed the kale into the oven for three minutes and once they were done, many children were clamoring around the table to try out the snack.

“You can use your hands,” Venable said. “It doesn’t take a lot of know-how, or labor or even dishes. We definitely want to do recipes that don’t overwhelm busy parents.”

Each week Venable demonstrates a new dish which utilizes fresh seasonal produce from a local farm. She said parents have come up to her and told her picky eaters enjoy the meals Venable shows them how to cook and enjoy trying new recipes.

“One thing I noticed at these programs is there’s such a large feat just to distribute this much food, and so we’re really knocking food access out of the park. But I noticed there was a gap in knowledge. So we’re here trying to fill that gap because it’s one thing to just say ‘Here you go, here’s these great local vegetables,’ and another thing to know what they are and what to do with them,” Venable said.

HPTS superintendent Anders Hill said the program has been a win for the school district, its families and local farmers. He said families are very appreciative of the program and it is helpful that the requirements for the program are not stringent.

“For me it’s an extension beyond the school walls and helping families,” he said. “Nutrition is such a big part of learning and that follows into the summer. It’s great to see families taking advantage of it.”

Food from the Meet Up and Eat Up at Houghton Elementary School comes from the Department of Defense, USDA and seven local farms. 1,037 children were signed up for the program and received food for their families which included fresh produce. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)