Members of the Plain Township Fire Department. Photo courtesy of the Plain Township Fire Department
The brave men and women of the Plain Township Fire Department know how to work a fire – including the one on the stove.
It’s a scene playing out in their communal firehouse kitchen at least twice a day. Working long, unpredictable shifts and staying alert to respond to Plain Township and New Albany emergencies have a way of working up a hefty appetite. The task of preparing meals falls to a handful of go-to guys who keep meals tasty as well as healthful.
Deciding what to make for dinner is an age-old dilemma that stumps many. It’s daunting enough coming up with a meal plan for one’s own family who live under one roof and, more or less, share similar dietary backgrounds. Try to take on cooking for a diverse group of adults with different personalities, tastes and appetites on a fixed budget ($10/person per day).
The process is further complicated by the fact that the engine can be called out at any time.
“There are days when you spend an hour cooking and not eat it,” says firefighter Derek Caplinger, one of the frequent cooks. “There are times when you start cooking and someone else has to finish.”
Sound like a challenge fit for a hero? Undoubtedly.
Enter Lauren Blake, nutritionist at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany.
When Blake offered to take the firefighters grocery shopping to help them choose more healthful foods while meeting their budget, the firehouse’s main cooks said yes without hesitation. One of the leading proponents was health buff and fitness center owner Joe Herren.
“She did a really good job of helping us manage the financial part of meal planning,” says Herren.
Blake helped develop a meal plan to provide a game plan for incorporating both healthful and on-sale ingredients.
“We looked at labels and things that really matter – sugar content, salt content – and replaced them with healthier options, like yogurt for mayonnaise,” says Herren.
Blake’s suggestions were well received. But above all, the cooking crew appreciated the assistance with tackling its biggest challenge: cooking on a budget. However, there was some uncertainty in how the other 30-plus firehouse tenants would take to the new plan.
“You can’t ever force or push people to eat a certain way,” says Herren. “You can, however, give positive feedback, a little encouragement and obviously lead by example. Then people start to listen. So that’s the biggest thing we do now.”
The credit doesn’t all go to Blake. Even before her visit, the cooks at the firehouse had been working in more nutritious fare, always with input from the whole team.
“As we all take turns doing the rotational thing we do, someone will say, ‘Hey, I saw this on the Internet,’ and so it’s like, ‘OK, let’s try it,’” says Caplinger.
“The firefighters we’re hiring now have a different attitude about health (than those who) have been here for 20 (to) 25 years,” says Assistant Fire Chief Jack Rupp. “It is a culture change more towards health as we learn more and more from research.”
It’s also a change toward increased vigilance of all-around health at the fire department. The crew continues to be mindful of the startling number of strokes and heart attacks nationwide each year. To stay alert, the department conducts intermittent physicals and extensive stress tests on the team.
In keeping with a nutritional diet as often as possible, the hope is firefighters will attain the conditioning they need to go from zero to sixty at the sound of the bell.
“If we have a firefighter with a cardiac emergency, not only does it affect them, it affects the people they’re working with, the community and … their family,” says Rupp. “(People) look at firefighters as being athletes, but the thing is, most athletes go out and condition themselves before they play the game. We don’t always get the opportunity to condition ourselves before we play the game. And so that makes it more important for our staff to stay healthy and be conditioned all the times.”
New Albany resident Debbie Rigaud is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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