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Gardening class teaches farm-to-table lessons

Posted on 16 March 2011.

Executive Chef Bradley Labarre slices a plantain for students to taste. (Christina Ritchie Rogers / CorneliusNews.net)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
CorneliusNews.net

DAVIDSON – Eighth graders in Community School of Davidson‘s cooking enrichment class have expanded their classroom to include an “edible garden” behind the school to grow lettuce, sweet potatoes, collard greens and other foods.

The students planned the garden as part of this semester’s practicum, a community-based enrichment class, which meets Fridays. And they’re working with a county dietitian as well as the chef from the Galway Hooker Pub.

“I actually didn’t expect to be doing gardening,” eighth-grader Hartley LeRoy said. He chose the practicum because he wanted to learn about cooking, he said, but has since discovered a true interest in and love for gardening. “I’d love to have a garden at home,” he said. “It brings the community together, and you can make great food.”

The school received a $500 UnitedHealth Heroes grant from Youth Services America (YSA) to start the garden.

LOCAL CHEF LENDS A HAND, AND UTENSILS

“It’s important that students this age make good choices in eating and preparation,” Mecklenburg County Health Department Dietitian Allison Mignery said. She works with the schools as part of “Chefs Move to Schools,” a health initiative run through the U.S. Department of Agriculture started by First Lady Michelle Obama. It calls on chefs across the country to get involved working with teachers, parents, school nutritionists and administrators to help educate children about nutrition.

Ms. Mignery facilitated a partnership between the Community School and Chef Bradley Labarre, executive chef at the Galway Hooker Pub in Cornelius. Chef Labarre visits the class once or twice a month and teaches the students the basics of cooking with healthy foods, like using olive oil instead of other oils because it has healthy omega 3 fats.

Eighth-grader Hartley LeRoy points to the newly-mulched garden beds outside Community School of Davidson in which students will plant vegetables. (Christina Ritchie Rogers / CorneliusNews.net)

Chef Labarre grew up in New Hampshire eating foods that were harvested and prepared locally, and is very excited to help students with the edible garden. He got involved with Chefs Move to Schools because he wanted to share his knowledge and his passion for healthy, seasonal food with students. “If the kids get educated, then so can the parents, and it goes from there,” Chef Labarre said.

In working with the students, Chef Labarre learned something about himself too. “I learned that I have more passion for this job and this industry than I even realized,” he said.

Even after working a full week, he still wakes up looking forward to going to school Friday mornings, Chef Labarre said. “Working in an intimate setting with the students, I get to really see the impact of what I’m doing,” he said. “I get to give back on a whole other level.”

The garden is tilled, mulched, and treated with an eco-friendly fertilizer, Hartley explained. Last week, students added a layer of topsoil, and are preparing to plant seeds in the coming weeks.

RELATED LINKS
More about Chefs Move to Schools on the USDA.gov website.

If you’re a chef who wants to participate (PDF), CLICK HERE»

To sign up your school, CLICK HERE»