A $4,000 grant will give students the option to power up with smoothies during breakfast and possibly lunch and to buy recess equipment at B.J. Ward Elementary school in Bolingbrook.
The grant is from the National Dairy Council and the Fuel Up to Play 60 organization that promotes healthy living.
“Our intent is to make breakfast smoothies an option on the classroom breakfast menu and maybe introduce it as an option on the lunch menu as well,” said Brad Bogwill, a physical education teacher who applied for the grant.
Smoothies will be offered to the 500 students at the school from February to May. The “Breakfast Anytime Anywhere” smoothie program also will solicit recipes from students in a contest to promote use of a dairy product, a cup of fruit and/or vegetable.
The Valley View School District Nutrition Services Department will review the entries and pick a half dozen or so finalists. Bogwill and Wendy Stratton, the school’s kitchen manager, will decide on four winners that will become “smoothie of the month” in February, March, April and May
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.”We tried to incorporate math in there by asking them to figure out how much of each ingredient was needed,” Bogwill said. “Some of the students had really great ideas.”
The grant also will go toward the purchase of items for B.J. Ward’s classroom version of recess called “teacher-taught physical education.” The items include hula hoops, playground balls, soccer balls, footballs and more. Students still attend physical education two times a week for 30 minutes.
Bogwil] said he had to show the district’s nutrition plan in the grant application as well as a physical activity plan and sustainability.
“I’m excited for the kids,” he said]. “Kids need to know people care about them and want to invest in them.”
Joseph Ruzich is a freelance reporter for the baiduhai.
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