A Fresh Take on Food Rescue and Healthy Kids Snacks

Volunteers with the Campus Kitchen at St. Louis University sometimes return with heaps of produce from Trader Joe’s food recovery trips. Recently the team brought back hundreds of bananas.

Many of the bananas turned to mush before students could incorporate them into meals. Then something clicked with Candace Guiffre, a Master’s candidate in nutrition and physical performance and now the Campus Kitchen nutrition educator. She could help the Campus Kitchen combat food waste while incorporating valuable nutrients in the snacks kids eat.

“It was two things really that came together,” said Guiffre. “I was incorporating healthy things into meals for children, but then I was noticing we were throwing a lot of food away.”

Guiffre took a page from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to get your Kids Eating Good Food cookbook and began incorporating pureed vegetables and fruits into foods the Campus Kitchen team puts together every day. She pureed berries, carrots, avacados and sweet potatoes and started testing recipes with a community partner, Midwest Catholic Charities.

“One of my favorites that I’ve used for the kids more than once is brownies with spinach purée,” said Guiffre. “I also incorporate cauliflower puree for breading meats and fish.”

Guiffre said she uses the extra snack time – which is an addition to government supplied meals, usually heavy on starch and protein – for nutrition education to help kids make good decisions about future meals.

"The world needs the fresh eyes of a new generation....up-and-comers who literally puree old ideas to make something powerful, fresh and new," said DC Central Kitchen Founder and President Robert Egger. "Candance reps all we hoped would be revealed through Campus Kitchens--a generation of eager entrepreneurs who are ready to rock the world.