All fired up in Chelsea!

“One of Chelsea’s goals for our farm-to-school program was to build a wood fired oven. Despite not receiving a grant to support the project, we decided to forge ahead. Students researched the history of bread ovens and wrote a persuasive essay. We did receive a mini grant from UVFTS which we used to get a local baker in to teach the students about how to use an oven and build one. The middle schoolers lead by teacher Eric Anderson built the oven on our campus. To celebrate the oven’s completion we threw a farm to school luncheon, including pizzas made in the oven, pesto made of basil from our school garden, and soup made of vegetables from the school garden and that of our student’s. Our whole lunch was local! The students prepped all the vegetables for the soup, made all the pesto, and were thoroughly excited to try food they had made. The school invited community members to join in and the day was a great success. A big thank you goes out to principle Mark Blount who had the idea of the farm-to-school lunch celebration and Food Services Manager Cathy Johnson for making it all happen. Great work Chelsea Public School!” – Lorette Cruz – Chelsea School, Chelsea, VT