Colts’ $1M gift designed to help upgrade school food
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Colts on Tuesday announced a $1 million gift to support an Indianapolis school.
The initiative aimed to revolutionize school kitchens in Indianapolis and combat childhood hunger.
The Adelante Schools‘ kitchens are now known as a culinary hub named Colts Commons. Over 450 students can access healthy meal options.
Edward Rengal, CEO of Adelante Schools, said, “At least what I grew up with at school was the tried and true, standard school lunch. Now, we have transformed that by using fresh ingredients and scratch-made meals to get kids excited about what they are eating, ask questions, and be inquisitive about what they are eating.”
The model will help to restore working kitchens within schools and provide support by hiring and training culinary staff to prepare scratch-made meals.
Over the next five years, the initiative plans to provide over 1.2 million meals to 3,500 students.
Rengal said, “We are blessed because we are in an old, established IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools) building. They already had a huge kitchen from the 1960s, so we could walk in and say what we could do to enhance it, and what we needed to make available so that a scratch-made kitchen could be possible.”
The Colts’ efforts and their fans’ support have created a game-changing opportunity for students in the Circle City. Rengal said, “Everyone first assumes that there are a lot of barriers. We can’t make this happen. This isn’t possible in every school. I want everyone to know to start asking how to make it possible because we are seeing the transformation happening in our school and other schools across the city. Hopefully, this will expand because every student deserves high-quality school meals.”
The project has been called the second-largest source of hunger relief in Indianapolis schools, and proceeds of the Colts’ Game Day 50-50 raffle will fund the effort.
One benefitting schools will be Andelante Schools at Emma Donnan School No. 72, which already provides nutritious and exciting meals for students.
Adelante eighth grade teacher Grace Lund recalled how school lunch used to work. “Before, we saw foods in packaging that would get heated up, and the students knew it wasn’t that great. Now, they are seeing the scooping of the food, or they can smell the food as it’s being made throughout the day and get excited about what food they are eating that day.”
According to The Patachou Foundation, 1 in 5 kids is food insecure.
Students say they are big fans of the new food. Seventhy grader Sergio Hernandez said, “My favorite dishes are the teriyaki chicken with rice, and my first is the pizza they serve on Friday.”
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