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By Kevin McCallum, Graphic Reporter
Getting 80 9-year-olds to sit through a presentation about proper nutrition is no simple task—even for a guy with fruit pants and a big knife.
But professional chef Tom Ohling was able to do just that last week at Antonia Crater Elementary School. Wearing pants patterned with brightly colored fruit and vegetables, the energetic Ohling explained the importance of a well balanced diet based on the food pyramid, diagrams of which he displayed on a screen as he spoke. Ohling emphasized the importance of eating grains and at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
According to Jennifer Parenteau, a program consultant for the child nutrition programs at the Oregon Department of Education, the purpose of Ohling's visit is to educate kids about nutrition and hand washing in a way that is enjoyable.
To give the kids and incentive to pay attention, every student had before them an orange, a napkin and a small plastic knife. They were not told what the items were for, but they didn't need to be—the idea that they would soon get to play with knives kept them plenty interested.
After the discussion of proper nutrition was over, Ohling launched into his real forte—creative garnishes. This art form, Ohling explained, adds eye appeal to dishes.
Brandishing a large carving knife and a cantaloupe, Ohling transformed his large melon, cut by careful cut, into something vaguely resembling an overstuffed, legless turkey. The students’ oooed and ahhhed at the "chicken." Each student then got the chance to carve their own garnish out of the orange in front of them.
After a brief lesson in the principles of safe knife handling, the students grabbed their serrate plastic weapons and attacked the unsuspecting produce before them. The results were exactly what one would expect them to be—80 kids with sticky fingers wondering what to do with their 80 cut oranges.
So if you sent your son or daughter to school last Thursday with an apple in their lunch box and they came home with a cut orange they were claiming was a chicken, now you know why.
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