By

Crystal Gorwitz,   Hortonville Mid

Play:

Topics:

Access to Healthy Foods

The Hortonville Middle School Fuel Up to Play 60 student group & their advisor held a March Madness Dairy Taste Test during all grade level lunches during the first week of the NCAA Men’s/Women’s Basketball Tournament. Dairy products were highlighted each day of the taste test. There was a paper ballot each day with a bracket (just like in the NCAA tournament) for the students to fill out for the winning dairy product featured that day. Day one featured cheddar cheese vs feta cheese and cheddar cheese won that bracket. Day two featured yogurt with fruit vs cottage cheese with fruit and yogurt, and fruit won. The third day featured the two winners going up against each other and the winner of the March Madness Dairy Taste Test was cheddar cheese. The Fuel Up to Play 60 team members met each morning with the head cook at Hortonville Middle School and helped her to put together all of the taste test items and then ran the taste test during all of the grade level lunch periods. The taste test was a big hit and all of the students at Hortonville Middle School enjoyed tasting all of the dairy products.

How did students and adults work together as a team?

As the Program Advisor, I have weekly meetings with my Fuel Up to Play 60 student advisory group. We worked together during 3 weeks of meetings to design the March Madness Dairy Taste Testing idea. We also meet with our head cook and the coordinator of our district school lunch and breakfast program to get ideas of the dairy products that were available for the taste test.

How did you accomplish your goals?

The Fuel Up to Play 60 students met with the head cook every morning of the taste test to set everything up. During all the grade level lunches, the students served the dairy products and counted all of the paper brackets to see which dairy product won.

How do you plan to make this Play last during the school year and beyond?

This is going to be an annual event for our Fuel Up to Play 60 program.