Greening the Cafeteria Menu: This Fall's Second Garden to Cafe Luch!

On Wednesday, October 26, 2011, the CSS Green Team students prepared the school lunch for the following day. The menu consisted of tomato mozzarella paninis with home-grown pesto, roasted pesto chicken, and pesto pasta with mixed grilled vegetables, including homegrown eggplant, kale, okra, and herbs.  We harvested basil, eggplant, okra, kale, and parsley from the Columbia Secondary School Community Garden, all grown and cared for by CSS students!  With the help of Ms. Robinson, our School Food Director, we worked in the kitchen to make pesto from our basil, prepare the roasted chicken, and put together almost one hundred paninis!  Additionally, we mixed up fresh vegetables and roasted them for the pasta salad, and made pesto from scratch using our basil.  "We had an amazing experience helping our community to eat better," said Anya, 7th grade Green Team member.

On Thursday, October 27th, 2011, Green Team students joined Whitney Reuling, from Garden to Cafe, to help celebrate the harvest lunch by handing out samples in the cafeteria.  Ms. Reuling brought some Greenmarket vegetables (including beautiful, colorful tomatoes!) to add to the pasta salad, and joined the cafeteria staff for the day to support our harvest event.  The cafeteria was decorated with posters and pictures of the day before in the garden and kitchen so students could get an inside peek at what went into their lunch.  Menus made by Green Team members advertised the delicious meal options!  Our Green Team students helped at our info and sample table, and it was a big hit with the students.  Some comments were "Wow, can I have another one?" and "This tastes really good!"  A lot of students were interested in the delicious lunch!  Many have already requested returns of Green Team Garden to Cafe lunches!

Keep an eye out for future Garden to Cafe lunches so we can make this school more healthy and green!

Reported by Green Team Garden to Cafe Committee: Ashley T., Xiomara, Ashley A., and Anya

Lunch was prepared by hand by: Ashley T., Xiomara, Anya, Maya V., Ariella, Sam L., Calaysha, Ms. Robinson, Prof. Hill