On November 10, FirstLine was proud to welcome CulinaryCorps back to New Orleans as they teamed up with ESY NOLA for a day of food-focused events at Firstline Schools. Culinary Corps is a
group of chefs from all over North America that enable culinary students and
professionals to volunteer their skills for the benefit of communities in need.
The winners! |
Early in the day, Culinary Corps teamed up with Green
Charter’s 7th grade class for our 6th annual Iron Chef
Competition! The heat was on as chefs and their 7th graders
determined what dishes to make for this breakfast edition competition. The
secret ingredient, Creole Cream Cheese, turned out to be an easy-to-incorporate,
delicious addition to all dishes. Though all dishes were fantastic, only 1
cuisine could reign supreme and this was ESY NOLA Chef’s Katie Bingham and
Lauren Coroy, along with their skilled group of 7th graders! The winning dish had a very fitting
name – Green Eggs and Ham – and consisted of grits, greens, boiled eggs and
bacon, alongside pecan-crusted French toast with a banana Creole cream cheese
sauce.
During the afternoon, Culinary Corps traveled to Langston
Hughes where they led a knife skills and food beautification workshop for our
foodservice staff. This was a
first for FirstLine foodservice, and in partnership with Sodexo, cafeteria
chefs from school around the city, including KIPP and Holy Cross, were able to
participate in foodservice professional development! The group tested new recipes and created new presentations
of hot line food to make nutritious and appealing dishes for our students.
In the evening, Culinary Corps helped run John Dibert
Community School’s first-ever Family Food Night! Dibert students and parents
helped find out what exactly happened to the Food Pyramid. As they traveled
from station to station, families picked up pieces to the puzzle along with
tasty snacks, recipes they could make at home and participated in fun
activities along the way! After collecting all of their puzzle pieces, we put
it all together to show them the Food Pyramid is now MyPlate. This new food
icon is a great way to teach students and their parents about the food groups
and how to create a healthy plate.
Though they have finished their work with ESY NOLA and
Firstline Schools for this trip, we wish them luck on the second portion of
their trip as they travel to Mississippi to participate in an after-school
cooking club program for the Boys and Girls Club of the Gulf Coast.
Check out Culinary Corps’ video of their visit to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast here!
Saturday, November 12th, was also Green Charter’s
2nd Open Garden Day this year! Volunteers assisted in various tasks,
such as seeding, composting, feeding trees, sign making and even a fun recycled
paper activity.
It takes the generosity and kindness of many people and
organizations to make all of these events fantastic events happen. In Firstline
School's tradition, I would like to give a shout –out to all of the
organizations that helped make these events possible: Culinary Corps,
Hollygrove Market & Farm, Whole Foods, Langenstein’s, Junior League of New
Orleans and all of our
volunteers! We couldn’t do this without all of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment