Students Prepare Healthy Meal at Veterans Hospital

With the aroma of chili and baked potatoes in the air, more than 50 veterans and staff members from the Veterans Administration hospital in North Hills got a taste Friday of healthy cooking.

Before any food was consumed, the packed conference room became a classroom as culinary arts students from James Monroe High School and two VA dietitians provided a lesson on how to prepare healthy and delicious meals.

“[This is] about being able to be dynamic about foods we’re incorporating on a daily basis,” said Colleen Ross, a registered dietitian at the Veterans Administration Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center and Nursing Home.

The four students--wearing chef hats, white jackets and gloves--prepared a chili with ground beef, while Ross and clinical dietitian Wallon Hamilton offered health tips and answered questions. After the demonstration, a crew of volunteer students from Monroe served chili poured over baked potatoes, along with a salad, frozen yogurt and mixed fruit.

Arvid Larson, a World War II veteran who said he enjoyed the meal, found the lesson valuable for “just getting a slant on what a balanced diet is like.”

The four students who conducted the demonstration were selected for their talent and dexterity, said Eleanor Schuster, culinary arts teacher at Monroe.

Three of the students--seniors Sherri Richardson, Maria Perez and Licia Villalta--are in the Careers through Culinary Arts Program sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The fourth student was sophomore Adriana Perez.

“This gives students the opportunity to know how to deal with the outside world,” Schuster said, “with people of various ages and ethnicities.”