T’Naus Nieto
The Chronicle-News

Late last month, Trinidad School District No. 1 announced that they would hold a “food processing day” as part of the local food to school effort on Sept. 30.

According to the district, they were a recipient of the Colorado Department of Education’s Local Food Program grant, receiving over $4,000 to spend to use toward bringing local foods to local cafeterias.

“This grant was given to districts and charter schools with the intent for them to purchase Colorado- grown, raised, processed and value-added products for school meal programs. The grant supports Colorado’s producers while increasing meal quality and access to local products in school meals for students statewide,” said the department of education.

Healthy People Project consultant Rainey Wikstrom said the school plans to, “spend the day roasting green chilis and processing them to be used for pork green chili into the school year. This is the first time they have done this. This will involve a gathering of local partners and chefs and others working to support local foods in schools and in southeast Colorado.”