PHOTO BY CLARE JENSEN

Sisters Alena VanEvery (left) and Delores VanEvery (right) prepare scrambled eggs for the children and staff at GELC for breakfast May 14. The team now prepares healthier, more nutritious meals and snacks with help from PTHA nutritionist Karol Matson.

Kids get a taste for health at Grandview

By Clare Jensen

Kids at Grandview Early Learning Center (GELC) are jumping on the healthy living bandwagon as they eat their way through the day.

Director of the center Peggy McCloud said that healthy eating and activities have been encouraged for Tribal staff members, and she feels the kids needed to be on board as well – especially at a time when child obesity

and diabetes have skyrocketed.

GELC chef Delores VanEvery proposed changing her meal plans to incorporate healthier food items. Since late 2007, she has been working with Puyallup Tribal Health Authority nutritionist Karol Matson to develop healthy, nutritious meal plans that the children will enjoy.

Karol Matson has also been working with GELC staff and students to educate them on healthy eating choices so they can appreciate the changes in foods and portions.

“We wanted to change our menus, we just didn’t have enough education to do it with quality and understanding,” Peggy McCloud said.

Karol Matson said goals for her and Delores VanEvery were to make the menu healthier by lowering fat, sodium and processed foods and increasing fruit, vegetable and water intake.

Appropriate portioning is also a big factor for the teachers who make up the plates of food in the classrooms – especially for the younger children.

“We tried to work with the teachers and tried to do some diet education with them,” Karol Matson said. “I talked with them a lot about portions; what is really an appropriate portion for a two-year-old, a four-year-old, a second grader.”

Delores VanEvery has cooked for the children and staff at GELC for the past six years.  She has two young children of her own, and it occurred to her that if she is cooking healthfully for her kids at home, she should be doing so at work as well.

Delores VanEvery said she began taking small steps to make the meals at GELC healthier.

“I started trying to make more stuff from scratch…started changing the oil that I use,” she said. After some time on her own, she

called upon Karol Matson to get professional guidance on how to prepare healthy menus.

“It went off from there,” she said. “We ended up going all the way with the lunch menu – the snack menu.”

The two prepared a four-week circulating menu that is healthy and enjoyable for students and staff. The menu still includes some less-healthy student favorites, such as chicken nuggets and fries, hamburger gravy and brownies, but those items are served only once in a while to keep the children happy.

“We’re not putting them on a diet,” Delores VanEvery said. “We’re just keeping health in mind.”

Delores VanEvery and her assistant, Alena VanEvery, cook breakfast and lunch for about 50 people at GELC every day.

After-school snacks for the school-aged children who come to GELC after a day of learning are now healthy and energizing rather than full meals or junk food, to keep their minds sharp for tutoring and room in their bellies for dinner at home.

Things like fruit, veggies, string cheese or a half a turkey sandwich do the trick, according to Delores VanEvery.

Peggy McCloud, Karol Matson, Delores and Alena VanEvery all agree that the changes at GELC have been successful so far, and this is only the beginning.

More menu alterations will be made in the future, and they plan to reach out to other kitchens, such as Chief Leschi School and Elder Center chefs in hopes of turning them on to the new tips and tools they have acquired from the nutritionist.

“[Karol Matson] has given us tools to help our children be more healthy; and they’ll have a longer life,” Peggy McCloud said.

GELC also plans to provide the knowledge they’ve gained to parents so they may choose to make healthier decisions while feeding their families at home.

“Everyone is involved in this – and starting from the bottom is the first step,” Delores VanEvery said. “We just want to set examples.”

This article originally ran in the May 15 issue of PTN, with the last name of the VanEvery sisters spelled incorrectly as  VanEntry. PTN apologizes for this error.

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