Former public school Chef Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro, SNS (or Chef Sam as she’s known) now spends her time developing resources and training school nutrition professionals across the country as the Executive Chef of Healthy School Recipes. Every summer for the past eight years, she and Healthy School Recipes Executive Director, Catharine Powers, have been training school nutrition staff in a five-day culinary training program. Last summer, through grant funding from the Culinary Institute of America, the five-day program was piloted in New York State. More than 30 school nutrition professionals attended, with a large contingency from the New York City school district.

Wild Blueberry Dip: Flavor and Versatility

One of the recipes Chef Sam likes to demonstrate in the multi-day training program is a Wild Blueberry Peanut Butter Dip (thawed frozen wild blueberries and peanut butter puréed together) she created for the wild blueberry school nutrition program.

She says, “The wild blueberry dip delivers that quintessential peanut butter and jelly flavor – a staple in school nutrition – that children love, without any added sugar (note peanut butter can be replaced with SunButter).” For the demonstration, she presents it in a healthy grab-and-go bento box with fruit and veggies but notes it’s great for breakfast, lunch, or an afterschool snack, and delicious when you spread it on an English muffin or sandwich.

Chef Sam typically uses wild blueberries for the demonstration, but in New York had to use regular blueberries. “In New York, I only had the larger blueberries, and the flavor of the dip just was lacking. In fact, there was hardly any flavor to it at all except for the peanut butter,” she said. “I realized it was the wild blueberries that really elevated the flavor in this easy-to-make dip.”

To highlight the flavor difference in such a simple menu execution, Chef Sam went out and purchased frozen wild blueberries and made the dip again for the school nutrition professionals and did a side-by-side taste comparison. 

“The wild blueberries really carry the flavor in this dip, and they noticed a real difference,” she said. “And because the wild blueberries deliver such delicious flavor in this dip, even if you need to swap out the peanut butter for SunButter or an alternative nut butter to accommodate any allergy, you won’t sacrifice taste,” she added.

Value of Simple, Flavorful Dips for School Nutrition Programs

According to Chef Sam, “Kids love to dip, especially at the elementary school level, so why not create applications beyond the more traditional savory options like hummus. This wild blueberry dip can cater to a child’s sweet tooth, but still be a healthy option. You can dip apples in it, you can dip graham crackers in it, you can dip cheese in it. Plus, it’s a creditable dip for protein and there are not many of those besides a bean dip, and you’re getting your fruit. You don’t get any fruit crediting in a peanut butter and jelly, just protein.”

Wild Blueberries are a Low Glycemic Food

Not only does Chef Sam highlight the flavor and menu versatility of the wild blueberry dip, but also that it delivers a healthy, sweet treat for students without all the sugar. She says, “The wild blueberry dip tastes like peanut butter and jelly without any of the sugar.”

Per serving, wild blueberries have 32% less sugar than ordinary blueberries and are considered to be a low glycemic food. The Glycemic index ranks carbohydrates in foods according to how they affect blood glucose levels. Carbohydrates with a low GI value (55 or less) are more slowly digested, absorbed, and metabolized. They cause a lower and slower rise in blood glucose and insulin levels. Wild blueberries have a glycemic index of 53.

As Chef Sam sees it, “Wild blueberries are naturally sweet, and as school nutrition programs look to find ways to reduce sugar in the food they prepare for students, having this unique and native fruit on hand is a win-win for everyone.”

Tell your buyer! Wild Blueberries are available via USDA Foods in 32 states. USDA Foods #100243 for a 30lb case or USDA Foods #100242 for a 24lb case. Make sure you are ordering WILD blueberries! If you don’t see Wild Blueberries on your state order list, contact [email protected].

Jeanne Reilly started her career in the food service sector and was a commercial baker before moving into nutrition. For the last 25 years, she has worked in school nutrition programs, and is now the Director of School Nutrition at Maine’s RSU 14 Windham/Raymond School District (K-12). Reilly is known for her passion for child nutrition and has been recognized many times in Maine for her work in nutrition policy, education, and research within the state.

At RSU14, she has defined a clear mission for the school nutrition program and measures its success against the following principles: “Feeding students delicious and nutritious food so that they are healthy and ready to learn; Getting students excited and engaged in eating healthy, delicious food;  Inspiring children and their families to eat healthy, nutritious food at school and at home.”

Wild Blueberries: A Local Superstar Ingredient All Schools Can Access

To achieve these values, over the last 12 years, Reilly has gradually moved her team to more scratch cooking and sourcing as many local ingredients as possible.

One local ingredient Reilly likes to serve her students is wild blueberries. She gets them through the USDA Foods Program, and they are on the menu every week. “I order 12 to 18 cases (360-540 lbs.) every month to keep it on our menu on a regular basis.”

Wild blueberries are a wild, place-based food from Maine that resulted following the retreat of the glaciers more than 10,000 years ago. Maine is the only state in the U.S. with significant commercial production of this wild crop. Unlike ordinary blueberries, wild blueberries are not planted. Instead, they are indigenous (1 of 3 native North American fruits) and spread naturally where Mother Nature put them, with thousands of genetically different varieties in every field.

Reilly’s love of wild blueberries solidified during her time as a commercial baker for food establishments along the Maine coast where she baked hundreds of dozens of wild blueberry muffins. Today, she takes her love of wild blueberries and brings it to her students. Wild blueberries are on the menu weekly for both breakfast and lunch offerings. Many of the menu items are quick grab-and-go, made-from-scratch items, like wild blueberry muffins, wild blueberry muffin tops, and yogurt parfaits.

“Nothing tastes better than a fresh, warm wild blueberry muffin,” says Reilly. “Anytime you bake something for the kids, they really love it. You can smell it throughout the building, that warm blueberry and cinnamon spice aroma. The kids are all about it. It’s tasty. It’s delicious. It’s a treat. It’s a big hit.”

Wild blueberry yogurt parfaits are a daily staple on the district’s menus. According to Reilly, the parfaits are especially popular with the middle and high school students. Reilly and her team have developed a significant grab-and-go operation to meet the older students where they are. “We make the parfaits a meal. They have enough yogurt to count as the meat or meat alternative. They have enough fruit to count for the fruit component. And then we top them with homemade granola to add fiber.”

Chicken and Waffles with Wild Blueberry Dipping Sauce

One of the most popular items on the menu is the chicken and waffles with a wild blueberry dipping sauce. The recipe is served K-12 but originated six years ago in a high school health class. The students were learning about school meal programs and had to plan a meal with cost, nutrition components and marketing in mind. The students taste tested it with their peers and marketed it on social media. It was a kid pleaser from its first introduction. After that, Reilly put it on the menu and it’s now a regular favorite. “There’s not a month that goes by without it being on the menu,” she notes.

“There’s not a month that goes by without this recipe being on the menu,” Reilly notes. “The wild blueberry dipping sauce is a hands-down favorite district wide K through 12. We use it instead of syrup for kids to dip their waffles into. It’s tasty and the kids are getting part of their fruit component,” says Reilly.

Find the recipe here: Chicken and Waffles and Wild Blueberry Dipping Sauce

Wild Blueberries: Nutrition, Cost and Menu Versatility Benefits

Not only do the kids love how wild blueberries taste, but they offer so many other benefits.  Wild blueberries provide powerful nutrition. “Wild blueberries are one of the best and healthiest fruits you can get,” says Reilly. Wild blueberries are high in fiber, lower in sugar and have 33% more deep purply blue anthocyanins and 2x the antioxidants of ordinary blueberries, contributing to a healthy brain. Recent health research found significant positive effects on memory, decision-making, response times, concentration, and mood when children consumed a wild blueberry beverage.

Wild blueberries also have a higher yield than cultivated blueberries making them a cost-efficient ingredient for schools. “With my order, I’m getting 25% more servings per pound than I would with cultivated blueberries,” she notes.  “Plus, wild blueberries deliver great flavor and are perfect for baking. Wild blueberries translate better into baked products because they are smaller, providing more berries per bite, and they don’t leave those big holes that cultivated blueberries do in baked products. Additionally, wild blueberries are a frozen product and aren’t perishable like fresh fruit, so they’re always good to have on hand.”

Finally, Reilly stated that wild blueberries offer school nutrition programs great menu flexibility. “You can bake with them, put them in yogurt, make sauces and salad dressings, and you can even serve them in a partially frozen state. We put them on our salad bars every day partially frozen in little cups. The kids love them just like that. You don’t even have to do any work if you don’t want to.”

Feeding Students Flows to Feeding Families

“You know you’re doing something right when parents email me to tell me that their son or daughter enjoyed a particular menu item that day and then ask for the recipe. It’s great that kids are going home and talking about what they’re eating at school and wanting the recipes. In that case, you’re not only feeding children, but you’re also educating families. You’re getting them cooking and using real ingredients. You’re keeping those families engaged and building trust with them for your school meal programs.”

Tell your buyer! Wild Blueberries are available via USDA Foods in 32 states. USDA Foods #100243 for a 30lb case or USDA Foods #100242 for a 24lb case. Make sure you are ordering WILD blueberries! If you don’t see Wild Blueberries on your state order list, contact [email protected].

Van Roekel has been with the Stanislaus County Probation Department for nine years. She is exuberant, warm, passionate, and creative about the work she does. La Londe runs the Juvenile Hall kitchen where the kids—ages 14-18—receive three meals a day and one snack. Like schools across the country, she adheres to the USDA National School Nutrition guidelines. Additionally, Van Roekel runs the department’s Culinary Trade and Learning Program and is a Serve Safe instructor and proctor working with the kids to help educate them about safe food handling practices and hands-on cooking skills.

Taste & Nutrition—Critically Important

A fortuitous encounter at a School Nutrition Conference in 2014 led her to what she now calls her favorite fruit to serve her kids—wild blueberries. These tiny blue beauties grow in Maine and are different from regular cultivated blueberries (also known as high bush blueberries), especially when it comes to flavor. At the conference, she was able to taste frozen wild blueberries and quickly realized there was something different and special about the little wild ones.

“It was immediate – the incredible taste difference. Wild blueberries are not tart—they are sweeter; their flavors are just better.” 

Not only was taste important to Van Roekel, but also nutrition, she loved that wild blueberries are lower in natural sugars and high in antioxidants.

“Kids love sweet things and wild blueberries have this natural sweetness. Wild blueberries give my kids the sweet flavor profile they enjoy without too much sugar and the nutrition they need. I see more and more youth that have juvenile diabetes, and they still need their fruit. Wild blueberries are lower on the glycemic index. So, it is an exceptionally good fruit to serve kids.”

Variety and Creativity—The Spice of Life

After that conference, Van Roekel made the switch from frozen cultivated blueberries to frozen wild blueberries for her program. The switch is paying off. Her kids love them.

“The number one challenge with feeding kids is getting them to eat the food you serve. It can take eight to 10 times serving something new before they will eat it,” said Van Roekel. “My kids fell in love with wild blueberries the very first time.”

She offers advice to other school nutrition directors: “Do a taste test between the wild and cultivated blueberries because you and your staff will notice a taste difference immediately and, more importantly, so will your kids.”

Today, Van Roekel serves a wild blueberry menu option every week, and her recipe ideas are both fun and tasty. On the menu, her kids will find wild blueberries as a simple side dish, so they can see and taste the berries. Wild blueberries are also mixed into oatmeal, layered into parfaits, swirled into smoothies, and added to a breakfast fruit pizza as a tasty topping. To replace syrup, wild blueberries are warmed and made into a topping or dipping sauce for pancakes and French Toast.

One of the kids’ favorite recipes is the Wild Blueberry Fruit Crisp.

“It can be hard to get kids to eat the fruits and grains they need so I have developed a fruit crisp recipe that has them eating up their fruit and grain servings without any hesitation. I took an existing USDA fruit cobbler recipe and swapped out the fruit to wild blueberries and added an oatmeal topping with cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. My kids think it is a dessert, but it’s actually a dairy-free recipe that’s low in sugar and full of nutrition.”

Another kid favorite is Van Roekel’s extremely unique and delicious Wild Blueberry Breakfast Fruit Roll-up or Breakfast Fruit Enchilada.

Clean Plate Club Means Less Food Waste

Van Roekel manages a tight budget with food costs funded through the State of California and the federal government. She purchases her individually quick frozen (IQF) wild blueberries through the USDA school commodity program. A benefit of serving a fruit like wild blueberries that the kids really enjoy is that there is little to no food waste.

“Nothing hits the garbage can when I serve wild blueberries and that is extremely important when you’re managing a significant food budget,” Van Roekel notes. “Buying frozen is also cost effective because you can use them when you need them – which also helps to decrease food waste. Plus, wild blueberries are extremely easy to use and are a fantastically versatile ingredient.”

When she made the switch to wild blueberries, Van Roekel was also happy to learn that one pound of frozen wild blueberries provides 25% more servings than the same weight of frozen cultivated blueberries according to USDA yield data. For her food service program, this means lower cost per serving without sacrificing taste and quality.

Ultimate Compliment

The youth at the Stanislaus County Probation Department Juvenile Hall are typically short-term residents. When they go home many of them ask for the recipes they have enjoyed eating and, in some cases, have learned how to make. The staff even ask to take some of the more popular recipes home with them. At the top of the request list are the Wild Blueberry Breakfast Roll-ups and Wild Blueberry Breakfast Pizza.

“They want to make it for their families. It is a big honor and makes me excited that these kids have enjoyed the food we’ve prepared for them– it’s really the ultimate compliment,” Van Roekel concluded.

The Abbey Group is a food service management company providing 40,000 (less now with Covid-19) school meals a day across New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. They offer a school nutrition program that highlights local/New England ingredients, quality meals and great customer service. To that end, the Abbey Group started including wild blueberries into its menus and marketing programs. And, they switched to all scratch-made salad dressings for their fruit and vegetable bar and included this delicious and easy-to-make Wild Blueberry Vinaigrette recipe.

After visiting the Maine wild blueberry fields, Scott Choiniere, Executive Vice for the Abbey Group, was looking for a fun way to introduce delicious, healthy, anthocyanin-filled Wild Blueberries onto school menus as part of his “Buy Local” program. He decided to hold a wild blueberry recipe contest to get this team excited and inspired about the special little berry from Maine (that packs a big taste and powerful nutrition) in fun, creative and kid-pleasing recipes.

Each participating school won a $50 gift card for the kitchen staff to use towards equipment, uniforms, promotional materials, or other wish list items. The school nutrition directors came up with some incredible recipes. If you have frozen wild blueberries from Maine in your freezer, give these recipes a try or check out our wild blueberry school recipe library. 

Winning recipe: Cambridge Elementary School – Maple Balsamic Wild Blueberry Pizza 

“We did a maple balsamic wild blueberry pizza. This was a BIG hit amongst students as well as staff and is requested on a regular basis. We love working with fresh, local and wild grown products as much as we can,” said Kelly Shortsleeve, Chef Manager at Cambridge Elementary School. 

There’s something a little bit WILD going on in the South Carolina school nutrition system.  At the recent South Carolina School Nutrition Conference, a full-blown Chopped Challenge took place testing participants’ cooking skills to the max and resulting in one very excited 1^st place winner. Four teams of school nutrition staffers from Lancaster, Greenville, Williamsburg County and Greenwood 50, competed in the challenge, producing a school meal containing a trio of ingredients, including pulled pork, fresh spinach, and frozen Wild Blueberries from Maine.

Each team received identical ingredients and equipment and were challenged to only use what was provided to prepare a winning school lunch meal in just 45 minutes. The equipment included a 6-foot-long work table, a range, a collection of small cooking appliances, a peeler, a grater, 1-2 cutting boards, 1-2 knives, a thermometer, spatula, 2-3 small bowls, measuring spoons, a frying pan, spoon, bucket of soapy water and sanitizer. Additional ingredients included assorted spices, flour, oil, fresh and canned fruits and vegetables, whole wheat wraps, and water.

After 45 minutes of cooking, the four teams presented their meal to the judges.

First place went to the Lancaster team which created a delicious Apple Pear and Wild Blueberry Compote and Yogurt Topping. The team used Wild Blueberries in two different ways. First as a fruit compote with apples, pears topped with a yogurt sweetened with Wild Blueberries and lemon zest. They also made a spinach salad with Wild Blueberries. Their entrée featured a shredded pork quesadilla with sautéed peppers, onions and garlic and a homemade BBQ sauce.  Head chef Hally Adams noted that if her team had more time, they would have used Wild Blueberries in the BBQ sauce as well.

Hally, who cooks at Buford High School in Lancaster, SC, says she was particularly inspired to use the Wild Blueberries because she grew up in Maine, the land of Wild Blueberries, and spent much of her married life in New Hampshire, where Wild Blueberries as also abundant. Hally’s Maine connection runs so deep in fact, that she can recall her brothers actually raking Wild Blueberries in the summertime, a longstanding tradition that takes place annually in Wild Blueberry barrens of Maine. Hally admits that she’s a huge fan of Wild Blueberries and she even makes a “a darn good Blueberry crisp,” which is a big hit at Buford High School.

Congratulations to all of the teams that participated,” said David MacDowell (aka “Mr. Wild Blueberry”) the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine representative who oversaw the Chopped Challenge. “It was an honor for me to witness the culinary expertise, professionalism, and enthusiasm exhibited by the teams representing these school districts.”  All participants in the Challenge received Wild Blueberry aprons and hats in appreciation of their efforts.

If you could ….

find a fruit that costs only 12 cents per serving and make it the star of your menu…
substitute a conventional fruit with a fruit packed with bold flavor….
add pizzazz to your savory and sweet dishes…
increase the nutrition density of your menu…
innovate with one of our nation’s original crops…

Would you go Wild?

Breaking news! Wild Blueberries are taking off as one of our nation’s hottest commodity fruits.  In the last year alone school foodservice sales of Wild Blueberries have jumped by 57%, and are now being sourced through the USDA Commodity Food Program in 22 states.

Is it time for you to get on board this hot trend?

2018 SNIC “Fruit Forward” Innovative Solutions Session

Join three of the nation’s top experts — Nancy McBrady, Ron Adams, and Cheryl Wixson – who will share “fruit forward” menu strategies that boost student participation, address operational concerns, and save on serving costs.

Hear the unique story of Wild Blueberries and how they differ from their regular cultivated cousin. Presenters will share insights on how to incorporate Wild Blueberries into school menus. They will help you easily innovate recipes for taste and kid appeal.

Don’t miss this special session complete with recipe demonstrations that will change the way you think about fruit. Fruit can become a driving component to solve your meal planning puzzle.

When: Monday, January 22, 11:15am – 12:15pm

Where: SNA’s School Nutrition Industry Conference (SNIC) in New Orleans, Studio 7

Speakers:

Nancy McBrady – Executive Director, Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine

Ron Adams – Former School Nutrition Director for Portland Maine Public Schools and Past President Maine SNA

Cheryl Wixson – Food Engineer, Founder of Cherly Wixson’s Kitchen, a line of specialty food products from Maine

Contact: Ron Adams, 207-749-2929, [email protected]

Don’t despair! If you miss this 2018 SNIC “Fruit Forward” Innovative Solution Session in New Orleans, don’t despair, our team of experts will share the lessons learned in a special February recap, or you can take a Wild Blueberry sneak peek at a base sauce menu strategy that’s both sweet and savory.

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Wild blueberries are an easy and healthy addition to any school menu. They can be added to hot or cold cereals, baked goods, yogurt, smoothies, pancakes, dipping sauces, chutneys, salads, and even pizza topping. They’re also great all by themselves as a delicious and nutritious snack.

As a chef for Windham Raymond RSU School District #14 in Maine, Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro faces a daunting daily challenge: convincing kids to just try it.

That’s why she and her staff go to great lengths to win kids over to fresh nutritious foods. From fashioning pineapples into owls to carving bug-shaped sandwiches, to dressing up as Thing One and Thing Two for Dr. Seuss’s Birthday: “It’s all about making food fun,” she says.

Happily, Wild Blueberries have been an easy sell. The deep-blue superfruit is so delicious that even her finickiest eaters will gobble them up plain and frozen from a 4-ounce cup— no disguise necessary.

“They’ll just nibble on them as little treats,” she says. “We always have Wild Blueberries on hand and we’re always looking for ways to use them.”

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What’s more, Wild Blueberries pack a potent nutritious punch. In addition to containing one-third less sugar and twice the disease-fighting antioxidants as cultivated varieties, Wild Blueberries deliver a powerful brain boost for school-aged kids, research suggests. A study published in the October 2015 issue of the European Journal of Nutrition indicated that 7- to 10-year olds had better memory and concentration after consuming just 1.75 cups of Wild Blueberries. Not only that, but the tiny superfruit may be able to reduce kids’ risk of depression. A study published in the February 2017 issue of Nutrients, indicated that a drink with the equivalent of 1 ¾ cup of Wild Blueberries significantly improves kids’ moods., compared to a placebo.

Even better, they are a smart economical choice. Frozen Wild Blueberries provide 25% more servings than the same weight of frozen cultivated blueberries—which spells lower per-serving costs, important for chefs under strict budgetary constraints.

“Having it be a commodity item really helps our budget,” she says. “Sometimes frozen gets a bad rap. But it’s frozen at the peak of ripeness, locking in all of those incredible nutrients.”

Wild Blueberry Stuffed French Toast has become a popular special-occasion treat since Cowens-Gasbarro introduced it in December 2016. It’s featured as Fun Friday breakfast for kids in grades K to 5, and listed as a special for older kids. The recipe is a twist on a familiar favorite she had previously been making with local apples.

“It just made sense to start incorporating frozen Wild Blueberries,” she says. With eggs, Ricotta Cheese, Milk, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Whole-Grain Bread, and Whole Grain Flour, Salt and confectionery sugar, her Wild Blueberry French Toast is a tasty way to serve up a grain, a fruit, and protein alternative.

“The Wild Blueberries have a better flavor than cultivated varieties,” she adds.

A big perk of the Wild Blueberry Stuffed French Toast, inspired by Chef Samantha, is that it’s easy to prepare and serve. The dish can be mixed the day before; the next morning it just needs to go in the oven. That’s especially important for breakfast, when her staff has less than an hour to get ready before 200 kids start pouring through at 7 am. “Easy preparation is key in school nutrition because of the large amounts of food we have to prepare in such a short amount of time. We have so many factors that need to be considered to make a meal go smoothly. We need recipes that are simple, fast, and delicious!”

For Chef Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro, know your customers is one of the most important rules of school food service.

“You have to respect their palate,” says Cowens-Gasbarro, District Nutrition Coordinator for Windham Raymond RSU #14 School District in Maine.

High schoolers, for instance, who have mature tastes, will try daring options like Wild Blueberry BBQ Sauce with Pulled-Pork Sliders. But the majority of kids in grades K-5 would eat noodles with butter every day if given the choice.

“They don’t have the broadest palates,” says Cowens-Gasbarro. “You have to make it interesting but not too interesting.”

That helps explain why her Wild Blueberry Bars, which she introduced a few years ago as a healthy dessert item, were made into a creditable breakfast item this past winter. They have been hugely popular with kids ages K-12. Any kind of “bar” has a treat-like quality that maximizes its menu appeal. And with Wild Blueberries, whole-grain flour, oats, sugar, and corn starch, the bars provide a tasty way to serve up the fruit and two grains the USDA requires at breakfast each day.

“It gets the kids engaged to have something besides just cereal every day,” says Cowens-Gasbarro, who serves approximately 1,200 kids for breakfast, and 2,200 kids for lunch each day.

“Kids love Wild Blueberries and it feels like a dessert to them but it’s a whole-grain breakfast bar,” she says. “They love it!”

What’s more, each item must be easy to serve, efficient to prepare, and easy for students to gobble up during the 20- to 25-minute time constraints of the lunch period.

“It’s super crowded, super noisy, and we have a short amount of time to get through the line,” she says.

She knows that Wild Blueberries carry a special brand cache. The native superfruit satisfies parents’ appetite for fresh, local foods. “It’s a local product for Mainers, so it’s familiar,” she says. “I think it appeals to parents because we grow them locally and we have them in abundance year-round, thanks to IQF freezing technology.”

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Because frozen Wild Blueberries are so easy to prepare and versatile to pair, they’ve become a go-to ingredient whenever she’s looking for new ways to engage kids to eat healthy. She uses Wild Blueberries in smoothies all the time—which has been an effective way to entice them to try something other than cereal, or other same-old standbys. “Kids love smoothies and they’re a great way to get them to come down for breakfast or lunch,” says Cowens-Gasbarro.

What’s more, she feels good about the powerful nutrition she knows is packed in each bite or sip. Wild Blueberries contain one-third less sugar than cultivated varieties, and twice as much disease-fighting antioxidants. Research indicates that Wild Blueberries can boost kids’ moods, concentration, and memory.

Above all, they are delicious, says Cowens-Gasbarro.

She savors the superfruit herself long after the school year concludes. “By mid-July, we enjoy fresh Wild Blueberries to snack on,” she says. She makes Wild Blueberry Jam made from fruits she picks near her home. Because the flavor is so sweet and fruits contain pectin, her recipe requires just two simple ingredients: Wild Blueberries and sugar.

“It’s cheap and easy,” she says, “and I’ll get 20 pounds and make a ton of Wild Blueberry jam.”

All chefs must contend with finicky customers. But Blair Currier, director of the Yarmouth School Nutrition Program in Maine, arguably has some of the most discriminating appetites to sate: the K-to-12 set.

“The most challenging thing is keeping kids engaged and interested in foods,” said Currier, who earned his credentials as a School Nutrition Specialist. “They go so quickly to processed food.”The Wild Blueberry has become a go-to ingredient for Currier.

He has developed a Wild Blueberry Sauce and a Wild Blueberry Smoothie, made with frozen Wild Blueberries, vanilla yogurt, and orange juice. He has even created a Wild Blueberry Kelp Smoothie that the kids love.

“Wild Blueberries are a no brainer,” he said. “In comparison to other berries and fruits, Wild Blueberries have a flavor kids really love.” What’s more, the rich color and flavor it adds when combined with other ingredients for a smoothie can’t be beat.

And that’s important.

Currier isn’t just trying to win a popularity contest. Pleased palates translate to financial sustainability. The more kids buy meals and snacks from school, the more economies of scale can be achieved, and the lower the cost of food service. That’s important, as the state caps school meal prices at $2 for breakfast and $3 for lunch.

“I have to make sure that any ingredient I use or anything I invest in has the greatest amount of impact,” Currier said.

Above all, frozen Wild Blueberries are practical: they’re easy and efficient to prepare and serve in big batches.

“Individually quick frozen (IQF) Wild Blueberries are extremely easy to use and convenient,” Currier added. With smoothies, for instance, the frozen Wild Blueberries keep the other ingredients chilled, which means that we don’t have to use additional ice, which would dilute the taste and the component credits. “A little bit of Wild Blueberry goes a long way, especially when it comes to giving a smoothie a vibrant color,” he said.

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Sales and food cost are important numbers in this small district with 1,600 students enrolled with a 10 percent Free/Reduced rate. Yarmouth added muffins and Wild Blueberry smoothies to the menu and the average daily student participation in breakfast shot up from 4 percent to 24 percent!

This helped counter new restrictions on the kinds of snacks Currier can sell, and it created new energy in the cafeteria for students excited with the changes. The Wild Blueberries are available through the USDA Commodity Foods program and help keep food cost low with over $37,000 worth of foods purchased annually.

And Currier has continued to tinker with new Wild Blueberry recipes.

In 2016, working with Ocean Approved, a local seaweed processing company, he introduced a non-dairy version of the Wild Blueberry smoothie made with kelp cubes. The kelp didn’t affect the taste, but provided iodine vital to healthy thyroid function as well as body to the smoothie. By using bananas as its base, it had a lower sugar content than the version of the smoothie made with vanilla yogurt.

The Wild Blueberry Kelp Smoothie was part of the winning menu that made Currier and Nikki Davoren, his Yarmouth Middle School Assistant Manager, champions of the 2017 Farm-to-School Cook-off in April, created by the Maine Department of Education to showcase skills of local school food service staff and promote locally-grown products served in schools.

The Wild Blueberry Kelp Smoothie “was a creative way of introducing a less common but nutrient-dense ingredient into a meal,” said Stephanie Stambach, Child Nutrition Consultant for the Maine Department of Education.

For the competition, each team had to prepare a breakfast and lunch within a specific time frame using at least two ingredients that are grown, raised, caught, or manufactured in Maine and meet National School Breakfast and Lunch Program requirements as well as one USDA food. Maine Wild Blueberries and Maine potatoes were used as “challenge” ingredients in the competition. All recipes will be shared in an upcoming Farm-to-School Cook-off recipe book.