PRESERVING FRESHNESS An LMCS kitchen staff member places bags of fresh vegetables in a newly purchased Cryovac machine, prior to storing them in the school’s walk-in freezer. Provided photo
$40K grant helps LMCS food service go local
Lunches now include fresh-frozen veggies
By Emily Froehlich and Mya Ross | Manor Ink
Livingston Manor, NY – Over the years, school lunches have generally earned a bad reputation. Fortunately, this is not the case at Livingston Manor Central School.
Steven Rogers is the food service director at LMCS. He has been working at the school for six years. He uses his background and training in the culinary field to provide the students with tasty, healthy school lunches. He recently teamed up with Cornell Cooperative Extension and obtained a $40,000 Farm to School Grant.
With the grant money, LMCS got new shelving for storage and new equipment, including a blast chiller and a Cryovac machine which seals food in airtight bags. The new items allowed Rogers and his staff to process 4,200 pounds of fresh produce over the summer. These fruits and vegetables will be used to serve up delicious, healthy, homemade food to students all year long.
COOL BEANS Bags of corn, beans and other frozen produce wait to be thawed and served. Mya Ross photo
Going local for produce
A tilt skillet is another item that was purchased. “A tilt skillet is basically what we cook on at the school,” Rogers said. “It’s deep and tilts up, so you can pretty much do anything in it – you can fry, sauté or boil, and you can also make a sauce. You can make very large quantities, too. It’s a very versatile piece of equipment.”
Rogers applied for the grant because he wanted to shift from buying from big vendors to buying from more local places. This allows for him to provide better tasting meals for the students. “My whole intention since I started working here has been to do something of that nature,” Rogers said. “My ultimate goal is to make the school self-sustainable, meaning we make our own breads, we make everything here. All we have to do is buy raw materials, and we do everything in house.”
A farm-to-school program
“We have onions, peppers, red cabbage, green cabbage and zucchini squash,” Rogers added. “We have beets, we have swiss chard, kale, corn. We buy plums, pears, nectarines and apples – pretty much anything that can grow in New York.” The grant will last until the funds are exhausted, and quarterly reports must be made to Cornell to verify that all purchases are locally sourced.
Looking ahead, Rogers hopes to create a farm-to-school extracurricular program. Students will learn where their food comes from and can try cooking techniques, potentially preparing a menu item that will be served the next day in the cafeteria. Kids will also get the chance to announce on the loud-speaker a soup of the day they made themselves. Students who are interested should watch for further information on this exciting new program.
GARDEN DELIGHTS Students in LMCS’s ag science class tend to produce in the school’s vegetable garden, built with funds provided by a Sullivan Renaissance grant. Nevaeha Jones photo
School-grown produce, too
Last spring, Livingston Manor Central School was awarded the Edible Garden Project Grant by Sullivan Renaissance. Since then, the school community has come together to build an enclosed garden with twelve raised garden beds, one for garden compost and a seating area.
The garden’s creation enabled LMCS to offer an agricultural science course with Jessica Freidenstine, high school science teacher and longtime agriculturist, as its instructor. Since the start of the school year, she and her students have been outside in the garden planting, harvesting and building greenhouse covers to extend the growing season.
FEEDING THE SOIL Sienna Dutcher, left, and Demi Budd check out the garden’s compost bin. Nevaeha Jones photo
On Tuesday, Sept. 21, Sullivan Renaissance Edible Garden Project Coordinator Colleen Emery brought guest speaker Eugene Thalmann, a nutritionist and owner of Sprouting Dreams Farm in Liberty, to speak to the ag science class, and the students were excited to hear from an expert in the field.
After taking a few moments to mindfully connect with being present in nature, Thalmann explained the concept of putting the gardens “to bed.” As the weather cools, the students will need to prepare proper compost, thus creating a self-sufficient nutrient base for later crops. Protocols for protecting soil and preventing plant diseases to ensure a successful planting in the spring were also addressed.
Fun was had by all, and the students even discussed how surprised they were to have the opportunity to learn about gardening in high school.
Meagan Edwards