September 23rd, 2017
21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
Local food featured at St. Albans City School
By HEATHER SMITH
St. Albans City School
ST. ALBANS — Local produce is on the menu all over our local and state community in restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, hospitals and even school cafeterias. The increasing importance of knowing where your food is grown and the economic support to our community continues to gain momentum, notably at St. Albans City School.
The school’s food service company, The Abbey Group, is seasoned at featuring local products on the school lunch menu every week and often daily during the harvest months. Many of their menu offerings are sourced locally from Vermont and New England and most recently, from St. Albans City School’smarket garden.
This spring the school’s 60 by 60 foot garden was transformed into a production style market garden to afford enough produce for taste tests, Fun Friday cooking projects, Learning Community cooking events and weekly produce deliveries to the school cafeteria kitchen.
Cafeteria deliveries of Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, cucumbers, green beans, celery, summer squash, green peppers, head and leaf lettuce have been transformed into salsa, soup, salad bar offerings and served roasted on the student and staff lunch line. “It’s the freshness of the vegetables and the supply the school garden has to offer that has been really great”, said Chef Jason of the Abbey Group.
Students assist the school’s Farm to School coordinator with the harvest and delivery of the produce from the garden to the cafeteria doors. What does it mean to have backyard produce served at lunch? “I feel we need to keep going with growing our own fresh food. It’s an important experience for the younger kids”, says Renaissance Community eighth-grader Matthew Gonyeau.
In the spring many students assist with garden preparation and planting. They watch the seedlings get a start and return from summer vacation to mature plants with produce ready to harvest. Every year students help with harvesting produce and many are amazed to find potatoes growing underground.
Family and Consumer Science teacher, MaryEllen Lamb says, “The excitement is evident in our students when they are part of the gardens at school. When they can say, ‘I grew it, I harvested it, I made it, I ate it.’ It takes on a greater meaning and sense of pride.”
Connecting our students to healthy food choices now through growing, harvesting and eating are experiences that will help cultivate healthy food choices for the future. --Heather Smith is the Farm to School coordinator at St. Albans City School.
Local food featured at St. Albans City School
By HEATHER SMITH
St. Albans City School
ST. ALBANS — Local produce is on the menu all over our local and state community in restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, hospitals and even school cafeterias. The increasing importance of knowing where your food is grown and the economic support to our community continues to gain momentum, notably at St. Albans City School.
The school’s food service company, The Abbey Group, is seasoned at featuring local products on the school lunch menu every week and often daily during the harvest months. Many of their menu offerings are sourced locally from Vermont and New England and most recently, from St. Albans City School’smarket garden.
This spring the school’s 60 by 60 foot garden was transformed into a production style market garden to afford enough produce for taste tests, Fun Friday cooking projects, Learning Community cooking events and weekly produce deliveries to the school cafeteria kitchen.
Cafeteria deliveries of Yukon Gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, cucumbers, green beans, celery, summer squash, green peppers, head and leaf lettuce have been transformed into salsa, soup, salad bar offerings and served roasted on the student and staff lunch line. “It’s the freshness of the vegetables and the supply the school garden has to offer that has been really great”, said Chef Jason of the Abbey Group.
Students assist the school’s Farm to School coordinator with the harvest and delivery of the produce from the garden to the cafeteria doors. What does it mean to have backyard produce served at lunch? “I feel we need to keep going with growing our own fresh food. It’s an important experience for the younger kids”, says Renaissance Community eighth-grader Matthew Gonyeau.
In the spring many students assist with garden preparation and planting. They watch the seedlings get a start and return from summer vacation to mature plants with produce ready to harvest. Every year students help with harvesting produce and many are amazed to find potatoes growing underground.
Family and Consumer Science teacher, MaryEllen Lamb says, “The excitement is evident in our students when they are part of the gardens at school. When they can say, ‘I grew it, I harvested it, I made it, I ate it.’ It takes on a greater meaning and sense of pride.”
Connecting our students to healthy food choices now through growing, harvesting and eating are experiences that will help cultivate healthy food choices for the future. --Heather Smith is the Farm to School coordinator at St. Albans City School.