What’s Been Cooking in 2020?
Who Feeds Our Kids: Ariane Lavoie
Keeping Our Community Fed
Everyone Eats! Delivered to Schools
Coronavirus Relief Funding Helps Schools Pivot
Academy School Takes Its Learning Outdoors
Who Feeds Our Kids: Ariane Lavoie
Welcome to Food Connects’ series highlighting the amazing essential workers in our community who work hard every day to keep our children fed. Read on to learn more!
Ariane Lavoie
Ariane Lavoie is a food service professional at Putney Central School, where she has worked for the past three years. We chatted with her in the late spring of 2020 about the pandemic and how it had affected her life and work.
Sheila Humphreys (SH): How has your work changed due to COVID-19?
Ariane Lavoie (AL): Less kids, more packaging! We work less hours because we don't have to clean up after lunch and do all the dishes and stuff like that, but I start work a little earlier. It's a little less hours, but not too different.
SH: What has kept you going during these unusual times?
“We do it so the kids have something to eat. And we all feel an obligation to just do whatever we can to keep the community going.”
AL: I really do it for the kids. We do it so the kids have something to eat. And we all feel an obligation to just do whatever we can to keep the community going.
SH: Do you have children at home?
AL: I do. I have an eight-year-old and an 18-year-old stepdaughter.
SH: How are you managing with child care?
AL: We're lucky because my husband is working from home. He's been doing the morning shift with the kids, and then I come home at lunchtime and I help my daughter with schoolwork.
SH: What has been your biggest challenge during this time?
AL: My biggest challenge is not letting anxiety take over. At work, it seems like we're just making food and everything's okay, it’s normal. But it sort of takes a toll on all of us. Even if we don’t necessarily feel it all the time, you know, like “oh, my gosh, I'm so stressed right now,” but it’s just there all the time. Managing that anxiety is the biggest challenge, but once again, I think we're really lucky to be able to work with other people and see each other at work every day and have this sense of community and be social more than if we were all stuck in our houses working remotely.
SH: How can the community support you and other food service workers during this time?
AL: The community in general recognizes and appreciates what we've been doing, which is amazing. We're in a public school setting where we need to check every penny and try to keep everything cheap. We're doing a good job here making food from scratch, and it's more expensive. If the government could just see that scratch cooking is the right way of doing things that would be helpful.
SH: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in this career?
AL: First, good choice. You're gonna love it! Get ready to be a hard worker, it’s hard work working in any kitchen I think. But it's fun and rewarding and we have great working conditions at this school. If there's a snowstorm, I'm there with my daughter, I don't need to go to work or take the day off or anything like that. So it's a wonderful job. I would encourage anybody to come and work in the kitchen with me!
SH: What brings you joy?
AL: So many things bring me joy. First of all, we live in Vermont, so just look outside and you will find joy. Music brings me joy, flowers and gardening bring me joy, food brings me joy! My dog and my family bring me joy.
SH: What are some things that you are grateful for?
AL: This glorious day that we have today, and my health. I practice gratitude every day, so I could go on for ½ an hour with what I’m grateful for! I’m grateful for these guys that I work with and that we get along and we’re not at each other’s throats since this started. I’m grateful for Vermont because there couldn’t be a better place to live during this crisis. I’m grateful for my house and my family.
SH: Final thoughts?
AH: We’re doing what we’re doing and we’re going to keep doing it!
Coronavirus Relief Funding Helps Schools Pivot
2020 was the year of quick pivots and short deadlines. This was especially true for school nutrition programs that went from self-serve salad bars, to home delivery using district busses, to “unitized” (individual) meals for physically-distanced students in classrooms. This task hasn’t been easy, nor has it been cheap. School nutrition programs have needed new equipment, more storage capacity, and much more packaging.
Most schools in our region have started using Oliver trays (a “fully integrated meal packaging system”) to streamline an otherwise very tedious process. WNESU recently received an automated sealer, further speeding up the process of packaging the hundreds of meals that leave their kitchen daily.
Thanks to the CARES Act funding provided by Congress back in March, funds were made available to states to support the costs associated with making big programmatic changes. Food Connects worked closely with Ali West (Brattleboro Regional Food Service Director, Fresh Picks Cafe) to identify the needs of all the schools in the Windham Southeast School District and apply for the funding.
In the central kitchens at Academy School and Brattleboro Union High School, the school nutrition programs were able to add additional refrigeration capacity. This will give them more flexibility when ordering fresh produce, as well as when making and storing bulk meals. Putney Central School’s nutrition program used the funding to purchase a mini-van to distribute meals. Transportation is another new bottleneck in programs’ operations. Having a dedicated vehicle for delivering meals to distribution sites and for transporting supplies will help ensure meals can get out on time.
In Guilford, new mobile waste sorting stations will make classroom meals a little more manageable while still making it easy for students to recycle and compost their leftovers. They also used some reimbursement funds to help pay for the new outdoor gear that was purchased for students and the materials used in building their outdoor learning structures. Lastly, Academy School is expanding its capacity to cook outdoors with students by installing fire pits around the campus.
Each of these purchases goes a little way in helping schools operate during these difficult times. Here at Food Connects, we’re excited to see the new equipment put to good use in 2021 as we continue to support the evolving needs of schools.
Everyone Eats! Delivered to Schools
Five months ago, Everyone Eats! Brattleboro, a program that pays restaurants to make meals for those in the community negatively impacted by the pandemic, first piloted in Brattleboro. The program has had such a large impact on the entire Vermont community, it will continue into 2021 through a combination of federal, state, and philanthropic funding. In addition to distribution at the 80 Flat St location, organizations get meals out to the community via their networks. The Farm to School team helped by ensuring teachers at all of the Windham Southeast School District, WSESD, schools got a chance to try the meals and learn more about the program. Not only was it another way for meals funded by the CARES Act to get into the community but it brought a welcome break to busy teachers who could skip a night of cooking.
While passing out the meals, our team was reminded once again of the importance food plays in our sense of community. The joy that comes from shared food, even in physically distanced circumstances, is near-universal and a source of strength for many. We were grateful to have the opportunity to be the last leg of a long chain of community members working to make this program possible. Starting with our local farmers (meals contained, on average, over 25% local ingredients), Mama Sezz then managed all of the pick-up logistics and dedicated volunteers who made distribution a weekly part of their lives were the backbone of the operation. Everyone Eats! has brought hundreds of new people into the world of charitable food and created new connections within the community. We’re excited to bring these new connections and perspectives with us as we continue to strengthen our local food system.
What’s Been Cooking in 2020
Who would have guessed 2020 would end with sweet potatoes roasting over an open fire?
Cooking and nutrition education are bright spots for schools across the region as teachers adapt and evolve to a constantly changing situation—truly embodying resiliency (a contender for 2020 Word of the Year). This story of resilience stands as a testament to the fundamental role Farm to School programming plays in today’s general curriculum—cooking kept students hands-on during remote learning and has flourished during the return to (increasingly outdoor) classrooms.
Westminster Grow Pack.
Last spring, schools closed swiftly—winter boots left in cubbies and desks full of supplies. Teachers had difficulties getting into their classrooms to grab materials for their lessons. Despite these challenges, cooking and gardening education continued to enliven the curriculum. Sarah Rosow (Guilford Central School) and Mandy Walsh (Westminster Center School) got grow kits out to students via pick up locations and bus deliveries. These kits enabled students to get their hands dirty in the “garden”, even if they lived in an apartment. At Riverside Middle School, STEAM teacher Becca Osbourne tried her hand at virtual cooking lessons, which her 6th graders particularly took to.
A crucial part of cooking education takes place long before students begin chopping veggies. Farm to School programming focuses on cycles—for food, the cycle is most powerful when students have a hand in each part of the process, from seed to plate (or Seed2Tray when talking about food in the West River Education District). Recognizing this, school garden coordinators worked hard last spring to ensure gardens were planted—filled with intentions of a bountiful fall and a return to normalcy.
River Gallery Arts visits Oak Grove School.
Food Connects hosted regional calls for coordinators to share tips and tricks and provide connection during an otherwise distanced season. Thanks to these collective efforts, gardens thrived this past summer. Food Connects Garden Coordinator, Tara Gordon, maintained six of the gardens in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and we piloted free family art activities thanks to support from RiseVT and three local arts organizations—River Gallery School of Art, Insight Photography, and the Human Art of Play. The culmination of these regional efforts were gardens readily awaiting the return of students if public safety would allow.
Gardening at Winston Prouty.
Food Connects helped new cooking programs get started this school year. The Early Learning Center at Winston Prouty attended the New England Farm to School Institute this past summer with Food Connects FTS Coordinator, Sheila Humphreys, as their coach. With an established school garden, the team has laid a foundation for the next level of Farm to School work, including incorporating local foods onto their menu, Harvest of the Month Taste tests, and building a strong committee to carry the work forward. Through a RiseVT grant received by Food Connects, the team purchased materials for a cooking cart. Not only does the team intend to do more cooking with students, but they’re excited to start processing school-grown produce into homemade baby food and snacks.
A staggered reopening of schools this fall came with its own set of challenges. What we’ve seen from our member schools is that those that leaned the furthest into outdoor education have seen the most success—ie. engaged students, happy teachers, and creative lessons. Food Connects helped schools keep cooking on the menu through specific guidance; stepping into an otherwise empty space, our Cooking with Students during COVID-19 guidelines provided a framework for educators and administrators to confidently establish safe practices around their cooking lessons. And we’ve seen those cooking lessons flourish—whether it be pumpkin pancakes in Guilford, pizzas at Green Street, or fire-roasted sweet potatoes at Academy.
Cooking with students at Academy School.
At Academy School, garden coordinator Kathy Cassin took advantage of a warm fall and large school forest to cook with students. Not only did students cook roasted sweet potatoes in November but Kathy also prepared sweet potato cookies and hummus for students to try. Students at Academy School can expect to see even more outdoor cooking in 2021 thanks to the addition of multiple fire rings purchased through grant funding Food Connects helped secure. These new fire rings will enable more students to be cooking at the same time while also making it safer for students.
Not only has cooking and nutrition education found a way to continue throughout 2020—but the garden and outdoor kitchen (firepit) have become some of the most popular places to be at school. Most importantly, the sounds of growing taste buds have returned—“I don’t usually like soup, but this is pretty good.”
Academy School Takes Its Learning Outdoors
“I’m living my best life at work right now,” says Jon Sessions, assistant principal at Academy School. This quote came after a day spent outdoors with students learning different methods of stacking wood, including the Norwegian Round method.
Academy School fully embraced outdoor education throughout the first half of the 2020-2021 school year. With COVID-19 safety precautions in mind, preparations began last summer to make the most of the forest adjacent to the school, which is owned by the Smith Family. For years, the Smith family supported and encouraged the school to use the land, with Hank and Diana (Smith) Lange directly involved in the school community. Rainsuits and ponchos were purchased so that students could be outside on wet days, and trails and outdoor learning spaces were developed, including a mountain bike trail in the woods behind the school.
Since school reopened in September, teachers continue to think creatively about how to get their students outside as much as possible. PE classes are held outdoors in all weather conditions, and each grade level has its own outdoor learning space in the woods complete with a fire pit. Throughout the fall, students worked together to create shelters in the woods, including stringing up a large sailboat sail and creating stump seating, donated by Wild Carrot Farm.
Art moved outside as well—from beautiful fall leaf mosaics to potato printmaking using potatoes grown in the school garden to a month-long kindergarten arts residency with art teacher Wendy Windle studying owls and creating an owl walk in the forest behind the school.
With support from Food Connects, Academy School received grant funding from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to purchase five additional fire pits for the school, which are being used regularly as a way to quickly warm up cold fingers and toes, as well as for various cooking activities. So far, students warmed up soup and made roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes over the fire with support from garden coordinator Kathy Cassin, who is looking forward to more cooking outside with students this winter. As the weather got colder, it was clear that there would be a need for more firewood, so Academy School put out a request and received a donation of 2 cords of wood from Anson Baldwin Tree Care, and Academy parent Erin Bristol, which led to many hands-on lessons in different wood stacking methods.
Through their outdoor learning programs, Academy School has found some silver linings during the pandemic. Disruptive behaviors have decreased dramatically, and students and teachers both are enjoying the benefits of more outdoor, hands-on learning opportunities. Mr. Sessions is hopeful that many of the changes they have made this year will continue after the pandemic has ended because they are so successful.
Kelly Dias, who is in her third year as Principal at Academy School explains that “the increase in student engagement is directly related to the amount of student-led learning and physical activity that’s happening every day. Students love to be outdoors, and they feel a strong sense of community and purpose as they work together to build forts, observe animal tracks, and identify plants in the natural world. Teachers are integrating life skills such as cooking into their curricula, and these transferable skills are making an immediate impact.”
Another silver lining to the modified in-person school week schedule, which involves two different groups of students attending for two days per week with three remote days, is that school staff and students have realized how special their time is together, and every minute counts. “Everyone feels so lucky to be here, and we miss each other during the remote days—we are working hard to build consistency and maximize the time we have in-person,” Kelly said. Connecting with the fully remote learners is important as well. “We’ve had some remote classes come to do trail work; and The Nebula News, a weekly segment produced by Music Teacher Bri Davenport, highlighted the exciting work that remote students have done from home. We are always looking for ways to keep the school community connected.”
In short, the teachers’ willingness to think outside the box, has quite literally led to the shift that Academy School has been working toward for the past few years. The pandemic has fueled the increased use of the forest and garden space on a regular basis for all students, and there is no looking back!
December 2020 Farm To School Connection
WNESU Feeds Families During Thanksgiving
Farming While Black
Students Get a “Sweet” Taste Test
Bon Appetit! Cooking at Green Street School
Pandemic Silver Linings: Creative Cooking at Green Street School
Green Street School’s French teacher, Alice Charkes, fondly known as “Madame” by her students, has been integrating cooking and gardening into her curriculum for many years. This fall, her job looks a bit different. She is teaching French remotely 3 days a week, and she is one of the 4th-grade classroom teachers 2 days a week for hybrid in-person instruction.
Initially daunted by the shift from foreign language teacher to a classroom teacher, Alice seized this opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons—which she normally does with second graders each year as citron pressé—and build on some of the things she loves into the classroom, even more, this year. Smaller class sizes (Madame has 5 students in her classroom) and more time with students allows Madame to do more cooking with students than ever before. So far this year, she has made a chickpea and fresh herb salad inspired by French chef Grégory Cohen and individual pizzas. She plans to make French gingerbread and cookies later this month.
Madame found that there are some unexpected benefits to cooking with students during COVID-19. For example, in the past, she would have small groups of students prepare different aspects of the recipe but in order to keep the spread of germs to a minimum, she divides up all of the ingredients ahead of time and each student makes their own small portion of each dish, so they learn to make the recipe from start to finish and they taste the food that they created on their own, exactly the way they like it. For example, when she made pizzas with students in November, each student had their own ball of pizza dough that they formed and shaped themselves. They topped their pizzas with freshly made tomato sauce made with tomatoes and herbs from the school garden, cheese, and toppings of their choice including mushrooms, peppers, onions, and pineapple.
Naturally, Alice incorporates French into her cooking lessons. She was teaching her students pizza vocabulary (fromage, champignon, sauce tomate, poivron, etc.) for several weeks. Making pizzas together was the culminating project for that unit. Students asked for ingredients by their French names and played Hangman with French pizza vocabulary while the individual pies were baking.
Madame has taught a pizza unit to fourth graders for many years but this is the first time that she felt that she had the capacity to actually make pizza with students. Having a small group of students all day made it possible to do a creative cooking project that would have been impossible with a whole class of students during a 30-minute foreign language lesson. In addition, thanks to a mini-grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield to purchase a cooking cart for the school, Madame and her students had everything they needed on the cart to prepare food together, including cutting boards, graters, baking sheets, and a convection oven.
Madame also received help from Food Connects’ Farm to School program coordinator, Sheila Humphreys. They began by brainstorming together about the project. As plans took shape, Sheila was able to offer concrete support by helping Madame collect ingredients and joining Madame and her students in the classroom while cooking. Food Connects staff traditionally support member schools (like Green Street School) through coaching Farm to School teams and providing technical assistance to school nutrition programs and don't often work directly with students in classrooms but given the unusual circumstances of this school year and the increased challenge of cooking with students during COVID-19, we were happy to help out!
Alice is also working on a French garden sign-making project with Green Street School art teacher Rachel Mangean. In the spring, garden beds will have bilingual signage created by students identifying the crops grown by students. Encouraged by the success of this year’s pizza making, Madame is brainstorming with garden coordinator Tara Gordon about growing more potential pizza toppings in the school garden next year. Finally, she initiated the development of Vermont Harvest of the Month posters in French and Spanish and assisted with French translations for the posters. Alice Charkes, ‘Madame,’ is truly a Farm to School champion!
If you are interested in cooking with students during COVID-19 but aren’t sure where to start, please check out these cooking guidelines for ideas on how to do so safely.
Bon appetit!
"Sweet" Taste Tests at Academy School
Students at Academy School in Brattleboro enjoyed diverse taste tests of sweet potatoes, the Vermont Harvest of the Month for November, thanks to Academy’s garden coordinator, Kathy Cassin. Taste tests look different this fall because of meal program changes due to COVID-19.
Currently, Academy’s Food Service Professionals are preparing unitized meals for students at multiple schools in the district and they do not have the capacity to prepare taste tests from the cafeteria for Academy School students as they normally would. Kathy was able to find a creative solution to this problem. Meeting with small groups of students, mostly outside in the school’s gardens and outdoor classrooms, each of which has its own fire pit for cooking, Kathy made roasted sweet potatoes over the fire with several groups of students. She also baked sweet potato cookies at home and brought them in to share with students (a big hit!), and she made sweet potato hummus which she served to students with sweet potato crackers and chips purchased at the Brattleboro Food Coop.
Later this month, she will support the kindergarten class with their annual stone soup celebration, and they plan to add sweet potatoes to the soup. Kathy is spreading the word about sweet potatoes to families via recipes and fun facts in the school newsletter, and sharing photos of her cooking and taste tests with students on the school garden Facebook page.
WNESU Feeds Families During Thanksgiving
A week off from school didn’t stop the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) Farm to School Cafe team from feeding their community local, delicious food.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Food Service Director, Harley Sterling and his team distributed 523 food boxes filled with local ingredients like Grafton Village Cheese, The Bread Shed bread, Plainville Farm squash, and organic Mi Tierra tortillas. Each family also received an activity about the origin of tortillas and the ingredients to make a quesadilla as a family.
There will be a second holiday food box distribution in December on the 23rd and 30th. Follow the WNESU Farm to School website for updates on sign-ups and pick-up times.