Grant helps students get hands-on with pork

MENDOTA, Ill. — Students in Melissa Sallee’s foods classes at Mendota High School are learning more and fearing less about the food they eat. But students aren’t just eating foods like ground pork Sloppy Joes, pulled pork and warm garlic bacon pasta, they are learning how to prepare them.

“One of my platforms is that I want students to understand, you don’t have to use a mix or something already prepared,” Sallee said.

A big part of how they are able to get experience handling and preparing pork, from ground pork to bone-in pork chops to pork butt, is a grant from the Illinois Pork Producers Association.

This is the second year that Sallee has received the IPPA Food Service Grant.

“A great part of the pork grant is that I feel like students are afraid of cooking meat. It seems easier to cook processed things, so I really like that students are able to get hands-on learning,” Sallee said.

She teaches a series of foods classes, starting with Foods I, which teaches kitchen safety, from learning how to put out fires in the kitchen to using knives safely, washing dishes and then nutrition and wellness.

“We talk to them about being considerate of what you are putting into your body,” she said.

In the Foods II class, students learn about kitchen hygiene, food safety and sanitation, foodborne illnesses and how they are spread.

“We talk about transfer of bacteria, time and temperature for use of food, accidental poisoning through food and food allergies,” Sallee said.

The Real World

Even with the coronavirus pandemic, which has greatly changed how teachers teach and students learn, Sallee has been able to keep up the hands-on and experiential learning.

Students take turns coming up to do different tasks in her classroom, which includes a fitted-out lab, with stove, oven, sink and refrigerator and freezer.

With class sizes much smaller and classes divided up, Sallee has adapted her lessons and class time.

“This class is working on sanitation for dishes. They are making a poster for that. Then I call them over, one at a time, to reduce the amount of contact. We do things like how to prep garlic, pulling apart a head of garlic, how to remove the skin,” Sallee said.

Students prepare food that they then get to eat in class. They also learn how to store ingredients and leftovers.

“We start with simple things, like ground meat or grilled cheese with bacon. I do try to implement healthful recipes, and it gets more complicated as the classes advance,” Sallee said.

Many students come to the foods classes with some experience in cooking at their homes.

“I like to make egg dishes, and I like making tortillas with my mom,” said Gladys Payan, a sophomore.

Ashton Dewey, a senior, said he enjoys making main-dish meals at home. Along with nutrition, students also learn about food allergies and sensitivities.

“I learned that people can have food allergies and food sensitivities and how to cook with that in mind,” Dewey said.

A Cut Above

Sallee plans the different menus and lessons around what she can purchase and that’s where the grant, which was pork-specific, helps. She was able to purchase pork from ground meat to pepperoni and bacon to bone-in pork chops and a pork butt.

“My other Foods II class worked with the pork butt. They had to touch it when it had blood on it and feel the bone. I think that kind of exposure helps create less fear,” she said.

Students in the advanced Foods III class watched a pig being processed.

“We talk about the different cuts. We had a dinner and we made pulled pork and they made difference sauces for that. They learn about low and slow cooking for the less tender cuts of meat,” Sallee said.

With the grant, Sallee is able to purchase cuts, like the pork butt and the bone-in chops, that she might not get otherwise.

“Meat is expensive and I’m trying to shift away from just doing things that are cheaper, like desserts and sweets, to things that are more nutritional. You think about pork and the B vitamins that it provides. I want them to have more exposure to that so I am so grateful for the grant and being able to purchase the pork,” she said.

The foods classes at Mendota High School are part of the Family and Consumer Science curriculum that also includes child development and styles and textiles.

The department is part of the Career and Technical Education Department that also includes agriculture classes, business classes and industrial arts classes.

According to the Illinois Pork Producers Association, the Food Service Grant was created to teach students about pork production and the meat itself.

The grants are made available through an application process and all Illinois high school culinary, food services and consumer education programs are eligible to apply. The grants are made possible through the IPPA marketing committee and Pork Checkoff funding.