Jason Swanson is Director of Nutritional Services in the Knoxville School District. He was trained at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Scottsdale, Arizona. I asked him about what the kitchen does and why they do it the way they do:
You know, I care a lot about food quality….where people look at what we're serving and go, wow, this is a lot better than what I was served in school or I didn't realize the school did that.
So for instance, you know here we do homemade bread, homemade desserts, the food that we serve we try and make it look as appetizing as possible. Now the hard part is you have to balance that, because we also have a lot of restrictions and guidelines that we have to go by, so it's a little bit of a double-edged sword there. But we do a really good job with our food quality and appearance.
They say you eat with your eyes first. If you think about that, everyone can agree with that. Before you decide if you want to eat something you're looking at it, and if it looks good, you're gonna give it a shot. And if it doesn't look good you'll go elsewhere to eat. So you definitely eat with your eyes first and your nose.
So those two things before you even taste the food, you're kind of deciding whether you are interested or not.
I'm a lot about presentation and colors and stuff. So when we're putting stuff out on the line you're trying to have different colors sitting next to each other, so they're contrasting and you know kids aren't necessarily thinking about that, but it's just that's how your eye works. It gets drawn to those things.
So one very unique thing about Knoxville schools is we are one of the only schools in the state to bake homemade bread. So we do homemade hot rolls, hamburger buns, hot dog buns. We do homemade cake, cookies, desserts.
We were talking about looks and smells earlier. You can smell the homemade bread throughout the high school here when we're baking it.
We do about 1,200 meals per day.
Putting out good food is important, but it's more important that you find quality people that have good hearts and they're in here for the kids and all the right reasons. And that's every one of our staff. That's what we look for when we're hiring people. So I can't say enough good things about the staff.
Here is our full interview:
Sign at Northstar Elementary.
Superintendent Cassi Pearson took a few minutes to show me the t-shirts staff will receive this week in appreciation for their work.
Every year KCSD wants to make sure that we show our appreciation to all of our employees, because it takes every single one of them to do what we do to take care of kids, and to make sure that learning is top quality, and that Knoxville's just a great place to be. So, this year for our appreciation gift all staff will be getting a really cool t-shirt that says “Knoxville Community School District Staff.”
In the past we have given those things out on the National Appreciation Day along with a little gift card and usually a candy bar. This year, we want to make sure that all of our staff members get to wear their shirts on a regular basis. So we are going to be giving out the t-shirts to all of our staff on Friday, October 13th.
And then during the day or the week of their National Appreciation time, they will receive their thank you card and candy bar at that time.
You know, as an employer, it's so important for our our staff, the people who show up every day and put their heart and soul into taking care of kids, and to making our organization just the best it can be, we want them to know how loved they are. We want them to know that we appreciate what they do every single day and that we're glad they are here and that they are part of our Panther family, and so by providing something we think they can be proud of, and help showcase the role that they play. I think it's a win-win. You know, it makes the district feel like we are in a small token way showing our appreciation to our staff, and also letting the rest of the world identify who our staff are. We want them to be proud to wear these shirts out into public and let people know what they do for a living.
Addisyn Williams and Riley Davis told me what they like about middle school, what their favorite classes are, and provide advice for other students about how to succeed in middle school. Have a listen:
The Knoxville High School hosted the SCC Honor Choir festival last week. Students from all eight conference schools spent the afternoon working with a guest conductor in preparation for the concert. Mr. Ian Heetland led the students with this fun warm-up excercise.
Above is the guest conductor directing the students for the first time! They sound remarkable…I don’t film the entire song because of copyright restrictions, but please have a listen.
And don’t forget the school board forum. It will be held on Wednesday, October 25th, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Knoxville Performing Arts Center and will be live on KNIA. Six individuals have filed for three seats. The 2023 school board candidates are Larissa Van Donselaar, Dave Smith, Cheri Gerdes, Jyl DeJong, Brian Slykuis, and Susan Swartzendruber. The 2023 local city and state elections will be on Tuesday, November 7th.
Please attend the forum or listen on KNIA to help you decide who you feel will best fill the needs of the district as they guide us into the future.
And if you see any of them, please thank them for stepping forward in this way to help serve the community! Win or lose, we thank them for their leadership.
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