The Clear Lake Community School District’s food service program landed a spot on national radio in 2023 thanks to their food service director Julie Udelhofen. At the January school board meeting Udelhofen presented a powerpoint slideshow entitled, “Telling Our Story,” about how a USDA grant is changing the way Clear Lake students look at food and why National Public Radio (NPR) was interested.
Clear Lake CSD was awarded an $88,754 Healthy Meals Incentives (HMI) grant from Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) last August. The AFHK and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture have worked together to award nearly $30 million in grants to 264 small or rural schools across 44 states. Clear Lake was one of four school districts in Iowa to receive the grant, which is intended to improve the nutritional quality of their meals and modernize their operations.
“This woman is phenomenal. Every time we turn around, she’s got something new that can help with our food service programs,” said Clear Lake school superintendent Doug Gee.
Udelhofen was quick to cut in, “I’m only the middleman. I couldn’t do any of this if I didn’t have the fabulous staff that I have, because they will take on anything that I’ve learned and I can’t tell you how wonderful that is,” she said.
Discovering the grant application was just a fluke, buried in one of many emails and newsletters Udelhofen said she subscribes to keep up with school food news. Instead of hitting the delete button she sat through a webinar that talked about the HMI grant and how to apply. “I’ve tried to apply for USDA grants before and they are so much work,” she said. “This particular grant I could manage on my own.”
One of the first things Udelhofen purchased after receiving the grant was a large, outside, walk-in cooler for the Clear Lake Middle School because they never had one. Students from the building trades program at the high school sped up the delivery process time by preparing and digging the site for the outdoor pad, laying the rebar, setting the forms, and spreading the cement. “Then she showed up on a trailer and it was up and going in record time. I just couldn’t even believe it,” Udelhofen said.
Next she purchased a Robot Coupe CL50, a slicing and dicing machine, for each of the three school kitchens. “This machine is so phenomenal. They take a job that will take a half an hour to an hour and we can do it in minutes,” Udelhofen explained. “And again, we’re bringing in local, fresh food. It takes a lot more processing than buying it from Martin Brothers already cut up.”
The HMI grant, which helps fund some of the locally produced food that Udelhofen likes to use, led to doing at least one taste testing a month at one of the schools with the help of Healthy Harvest of North Iowa. While the kids were having fun and taking their taste testing very seriously Udelhofen learned that elementary students make quick work of shucking corn and love whole, fresh pears while middle schoolers actually enjoy hot peppers. Many of the food items sampled are making their way onto the weekly lunch menus.
Extra nutrition education for the kitchen staff, provided by Amy Jones with the Iowa State University Extension office, was a high priority on Udelhofen’s list. “My thinking is, if I can educate my staff in nutrition, and they’re talking to the kids …we’re going to teach them how to eat healthy.” Udelhofen said.
The last, and very visual component, that the HMI grant is providing is the “What Do We Feed Healthy Lions,” campaign, eye-catching posters filled with fun food facts and nutrition information. Good Chap Media in Rochester, Minn. has been contracted to print the posters that are displayed in all the school cafeterias and kitchens. Udelhofen said she has created a Google site which contains the posters, Healthy Harvest of North Iowa newsletters, and information on the local farmer supplying the fresh food as well as their location. The link to this site is posted on the Clear Lake Community School District’s Facebook page so people can see all the new things that food service has going on.
One thing that Udelhofen said she felt very passionate about was getting recognition for her lunch staff. “I feel like the lunch staff doesn’t get the recognition they deserve. Those ladies work hard, they make sure that the kids are fed and they care a lot about what they do,” she said, but very few of the students even knew their names. So Udelhofen created “Get to Know Your Lunch Lady” posters so students can put a name with a face.
“The other thing that I’ve been working on doing is telling our story, what we’re doing at the schools,” said Udelhofen. After conducting a “Fresh Cooking Counts” presentation at the SFA conference last summer she was contacted by a Harvest Public Media reporter from Colorado. After the story was aired it was picked up by National Public Radio (NPR). “So our story was on national news,” she said excitedly.
Since then Udelhofen has been invited to speak at the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Choices Counts summit in Des Moines and Iowa State University is also interested in her work. Udelhofen said, “I am a firm believer in local food and to get those kids that bright, colorful, fresh food.”
had one. Students from the building trades program at the high school sped up the delivery process time by preparing and digging the site for the outdoor pad, laying the rebar, setting the forms, and spreading the cement. “Then she showed up on a trailer and it was up and going in record time. I just couldn’t even believe it,” Udelhofen said.
Next she purchased a Robot Coupe CL50, a slicing and dicing machine, for each of the three school kitchens. “This machine is so phenomenal. They take a job that will take a half an hour to an hour and we can do it in minutes,” Udelhofen explained. “And again, we’re bringing in local, fresh food. It takes a lot more processing than buying it from Martin Brothers already cut up.”
The HMI grant, which helps fund some of the locally produced food that Udelhofen likes to use, led to doing at least one taste testing a month at one of the schools with the help of Healthy Harvest of North Iowa. While the kids were having fun and taking their taste testing very seriously Udelhofen learned that elementary students make quick work of shucking corn and love whole, fresh pears while middle schoolers actually enjoy hot peppers. Many of the food items sampled are making their way onto the weekly lunch menus.
Extra nutrition education for the kitchen staff, provided by Amy Jones with the Iowa State University Extension office, was a high priority on Udelhofen’s list. “My thinking is, if I can educate my staff in nutrition, and they’re talking to the kids …we’re going to teach them how to eat healthy.” Udelhofen said.
The last, and very visual component, that the HMI grant is providing is the “What Do We Feed Healthy Lions,” campaign, eye-catching posters filled with fun food facts and nutrition information. Good Chap Media in Rochester, Minn. has been contracted to print the posters that are displayed in all the school cafeterias and kitchens. Udelhofen said she has created a Google site which contains the posters, Healthy Harvest of North Iowa newsletters, and information on the local farmer supplying the fresh food as well as their location. The link to this site is posted on the Clear Lake Community School District’s Facebook page so people can see all the new things that food service has going on.
One thing that Udelhofen said she felt very passionate about was getting recognition for her lunch staff. “I feel like the lunch staff doesn’t get the recognition they deserve. Those ladies work hard, they make sure that the kids are fed and they care a lot about what they do,” she said, but very few of the students even knew their names. So Udelhofen created “Get to Know Your Lunch Lady” posters so students can put a name with a face.
“The other thing that I’ve been working on doing is telling our story, what we’re doing at the schools,” said Udelhofen. After conducting a “Fresh Cooking Counts” presentation at the SFA conference last summer she was contacted by a Harvest Public Media reporter from Colorado. After the story was aired it was picked up by National Public Radio (NPR). “So our story was on national news,” she said excitedly.
Since then Udelhofen has been invited to speak at the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Choices Counts summit in Des Moines and Iowa State University is also interested in her work. Udelhofen said, “I am a firm believer in local food and to get those kids that bright, colorful, fresh food.”
