By TOM RELIHAN
Recorder Staff
GREENFIELD — “I think we got it all!” proclaimed an excited Madeline Brandl, surveying the pile of kitchen tools and culinary ingredients on the table in front her in the Newton School cafeteria.
A few seats away, another fourth grade student, Anthony Borowiec, carefully read a recipe for black bean and vegetable quesadillas from a piece of paper as his classmates and volunteers from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts sorted canned beans, began grating cheese and chopped up leafy green spinach.
On that Thursday afternoon, the students jettisoned the conventional slap-it-on-a-tray lunch line in favor of learning to cook their own meal with the guidance of the Food Bank volunteers during the school’s Cooking Matters! event.
The event was the first in a series of six cooking sessions, a collaboration between the school and the nonprofit, designed to teach students the skills they need to make healthy dietary choices and prepare their own food, said Molly Sauvain, the Food Bank’s education coordinator.
The program is part of a national model run by Share Our Strength, a Washington, D.C.-based anti-hunger organization. Sauvain said the Food Bank approached the organization about running courses for teens and kids, and Newton ended up being a perfect fit because of its high proportion of lower income students who may experience food insecurity.
Plus, it fit in well with the school’s Breakfast In The Classroom program, said Principal Melodie Goodwin.
The session started out with a knife safety demonstration by Sauvain. After a brief primer on the do’s and don’ts of handling a blade, the students begun enthusiastically slicing oranges into small wedges.
In the cafeteria’s kitchen, another group was hard at work washing greens or mushrooms to be added to the dish. After it was finished, the student received information about the nutritional benefits and content of the recipe before chowing down.
Goodwin said the students will be able to bring the skills they learn over the course of the program home with them, which she hopes will also foster relationships between the kids and their parents.
“Hopefully, if the parents see the kids making a meal correctly, and they know they can do it right and safely, then the next time they’re cooking they might include that child,” she said.
To that end, the students will prepare dinner for their parents during an evening event to capstone the program, she said.
“In today’s world, families have busy lives and they’re doing their best to get everything done,” Goodwin said. “The more practical experience the student have in school, the more hands on, they can bring that excitement back to their families and have skills they can use for the rest of their lives.”
You can reach Tom Relihan at: trelihan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264 On Twitter, follow @RecorderTom