Interview: Carla Hall discusses Quaker Oats, NFL, and GENYouth collab

Football season is in full swing and the Super Bowl is only a month away. You may not think of Quaker Oats when you think of the NFL, but with their latest partnership, you should! Quaker Oats is teaming up with the NFL and the nonprofit GENYouth to show people how many ways oats can be used and while doing so, they are also giving back to kids and ensuring they have healthy meals in schools.

This collab also includes a food truck at certain NFL games that will be offering customized recipes featuring Quaker Oats. The recipes are based on the NFL team in each city. But if you can’t make it to the game, there is also a digital cookbook you can check out to see what your team’s recipe is.

Chef Carla Hall is on the board of GENYouth and is a big part of this partnership. We were lucky enough to talk to her about Quaker Oats, the NFL, and how GENYouth is helping ensure kids are getting what they need.

Carla Hall talks about GENYouth, Quaker Oats, and how they are helping kids

Guilty Eats: What are you doing with Quaker Oats?

Carla Hall: Do you know that I have loved Quaker? I love Quaker. They have been on my vision board to with them for over two decades. And it really comes from the nostalgia of my grandmother eating oatmeal every single morning and talking about it. I’m very close to my grandmother. She’s passed away but I’m still very close to her. There’s certain dishes that connect me with her spirit. My oatmeal. My oatmeal cookies. So I’m very passionate about oatmeal and I love talking about it. I feel like this partnership has my worlds colliding. I’ve been on the board for GENYouth since the beginning and Quaker has been a partner.

I do so much work giving back and focusing on tackling food insecurity and children and them having access to healthy food. It’s really all my worlds coming together and I couldn’t be happier.

GE: Can you tell us more about the Quaker Pregrain Tour?

CH: The tour is all about showing people the breadth and variety that you can have using oats. The truck is going to six different cities. And the people that come to the truck will be able to eat the dish that is in the digital cookbook [from their city]. On Dec 3, they will be at the Philadephia Eagles, which is my stepson’s team, and they will be serving the Italian-style roast pork arancini and that uses steel-cut oats. I love that they are incorporating whole grains. And then on Dec 10, they will be at the Dallas Cowboys and making mini meatloaves.

GE: How did Quaker and GENYouth come together? How did they decide on the donation?

CH: Quaker, the brand, has already done the work about tackling food hunger. And they were already a partner of GENYouth. And I think this year, giving that $250,000 is going to go towards things like flag football, food carts in schools, and smoothie machines. With these things in schools, it makes it easier for kids to have a healthy meal and a healthy lunch. A lot of times, people don’t understand the stigma sometimes associated with going to the cafeteria. So, this makes it easier for kids to grab lunch. To have sustenance before going to class is huge.

Quaker is committed to advocating for access to food and they’ve been a longtime partner with GENYouth.

GE: What is your go-to recipe with Quaker Oats?

My go-to recipe has to be baked oatmeal with a crumble on top,  like to make oatmeal with half fruit juice and half water. Tart cherry, blueberry, and apple work well and don’t have a lot of sugar. You mix them with the water. And I start my oats cold because I like creamy oats. I start them in cold water and they expand and they get really creamy. It’s almost like a risotto texture. That’s with old-fashioned oats.

For steel-cut oats, I toast those first and I like to do a nutty butter with them.

GE: What is your guilty eat?

What is my guilty eat? Let me count the ways. I love ice cream. I was an ice cream scooper back in the day. I love a sundae with two different kinds of ice cream with chocolate sauce. Whipped cream that’s just to the point of soft peaks and toasted pecans or almonds tossed in a little bit of butter with a sprinkle of salt.

I also make granola. When I had my company, we would make a granola. And so, in my granola, I would use oats, maple syrup, and also blueberry syrups. Any of those fruit syrups. And then when you toss it, they become sort of the essence of that fruit. That’s also great on ice cream.