December 29, 2022

American Dairy Association Mideast granted Gilles-Sweet Elementary an Immersion Blender Kit, which includes a large industrial hand-held blender, two 5-Gallon Buckets, a large measuring pitcher, and a Marketing pull-up shade. The equipment will allow the GSE nutrition staff to whip up a batch of 48 smoothies in minutes.

ADA Mideast also chose GSE as a pilot kitchen to test smoothie recipes for standardization purposes.  After testing, the smoothie recipes will be submitted to USDA to include in The Child Nutrition Database, an online tool used by school nutrition departments across the nation.  The first recipe tested at Gilles Sweet Elementary was Holly Jolly Berry, originally named Purple Cow, which has three healthy and delicious ingredients, blueberries, grape juice, and strawberry yogurt. 

Other smoothie recipes for the new year include Flammango; vanilla yogurt with strawberries and mangos. These Yogurt-based smoothies are a great source of protein and other essential nutrients for our growing students. Smoothies are offered as a breakfast option once a week at GSE