Kids Unlimited: Exploring “Pastabilities”
By Sarah Lemon, KU Director of Mission Advocacy
Founded in 1998 at a low-income elementary school, Kids Unlimited (KU) of Medford provides youth development opportunities to children ages 3 to 20 in Southern Oregon’s highest poverty regions. KU founder Tom Cole upheld education and opportunity as the keys to overcoming barriers of language, culture and poverty.
Believing in educational opportunities for everyone — regardless of economics,
background, race, gender or zip code — KU provides more than 1,000 children each week with meaningful, age-appropriate programs, who might be otherwise be restricted by economic and cultural barriers. KU’s mission is “empowerment through opportunity.”
KU’s values, more than 25 years later, have become a community norm. We know the community cares about its children, but we are challenged every day to serve kids whose needs surpass available resources.
Poverty, hunger and family instability are widespread among KU participants.
Kids’ adverse experiences and social-emotional delays require mental health treatment.
KU families need wrap-around support, including job, housing and health care referrals.
More than 70% of KU families are Latino, about half of those are non-English speaking.
Nearly one-third of students attending KU Academy are designated migrant.
To learn more, get involved and make a donation, see kuoregon.org
Pastabilities Unlimited is the latest youth engagement endeavor by KU, which brings the project to the community this spring.
A recipe for developing students’ culinary and workforce skills, Pastabilities Unlimited is one of the newest vendors at Medford farmers market. Customers can purchase KU’s freshly made artisan pasta Thursdays at Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market in Hawthorne Park.
Pastabilities Unlimited builds on KU’s history of supporting its programs with
entrepreneurism — from event production to screen-printing. Culinary arts are the next discipline to empower students’ experience of the business sector, from product innovation to distribution and marketing.
Fresh pasta dough is the medium for students’ creativity and shaping their business model. The project incentivizes students’ volunteer labor toward gaining vital job experience that jumpstarts their post-secondary education resumes. A commercial pasta-making machine was purchased for the project with grant funds from Leightman Maxey Foundation, and pasta is produced in KU’s certified commercial kitchen.
Pastabilities Unlimited officially debuted at KU’s Dec. 14 Hope for the Holidays benefit. Donors and supporters enjoyed a three-course meal featuring KU’s small-batch pasta. The pasta’s encore came Dec. 17, when everyone attending KU’s Whoville Family Fun Night got a free portion of Grinch-green noodles in marinara sauce.
Supervised by executive chef Nathan Herbold, Pastabilities Unlimited intersects with KU’s award-winning Food Program, students’ health and nutrition instruction and parent engagement. Herbold has been testing the pasta in daily meals while simultaneously incorporating more locally grown and raised foods. All KU Academy students still are eligible for free breakfast, lunch and dinner.
KU’s Food Program adopted a hybrid model for the 2024-25 school year that has reduced waste and enhanced cultural relevance among KUA students, approximately 70% of whom are Latino. Eleven of KUA’s 15 weekly meals are no longer served with milk, which was discarded, unopened, by a majority of students.
“We saw an abundance of waste while not being able to serve kids who were still hungry,” said KU founder and CEO Tom Cole. “It felt like a moral dilemma, really, about why we even created the Food Program.”
KU has operated its own meal service independent of Medford School District’s outside contractor for the past decade. KU kitchen staff cooks meals from scratch with fresh ingredients but, prior to the hybrid model, conformed to numerous regulations to qualify for reimbursement through the National School Lunch Program.
Traditional Mexican recipes, including enchiladas, pozole and tacos, feature prominently on the new daily menus with adaptations to include more vegetables and fiber and less fat. Those complement other global flavors, like Thai curry and Japanese yakisoba, and such American mainstays as spaghetti and cheeseburgers.
Locally raised beef has been plentiful in KU’s Food Program since the award of state funds to purchase more ingredients directly from local farms. The approach builds on KU’s history of collaboration with Fry Family, Rusted Gate and Ella Bella farms, as well as Salant Family and Plaisance ranches. These and other agricultural partners will play vital roles in Pastabilities Unlimited.
KU’s Food Program innovation requires community support, including donations of food and funds. Check out the quarterly menu at kuaoregon.org/menu and pledge your support for wholesome food with a recurring donation.
A KU student proudly shows some Pastabilities results!
