When it comes to proper nutrition and environmentally sound recycling practices, the Estevan Comprehensive School commercial cooking teams are committed to doing the right thing.
They aren't totally in as far as hitting 100 per cent compliance on both files, but they're very, very close and that's not bad for a food service that prepares between 500 and 600 meals daily during the typical school week.
The commercial food preparation classes were put in the proper nutrition direction as early as 2005 and started to pay stricter attention to recycling issues in 2007, and since then they have been getting incrementally better at it.
"We've been recycling all cardboard products since 2007," said commercial cooking teacher Curtis Hack. "We've been paper and cardboard recycling with two bins a week."
In 2011 Hack said he attended a professional development seminar that was preaching the value of corporate and social responsibilities, and that motivated him to motivate others to extend the recycling commitment.
"Now we collect all the plastics and tins and I drive it down to the recycling centre every week," Hack said. The only things that really get tossed as far as garbage is concerned are some paper towels and cleaning agents and that amounts to less than two average sized garbage bags per day.
"The vegetable scraps go out to local chicken farms," said Hack. "The kids are pretty good at paying attention to what can be recycled and the staff are on board too. All dining small wares are biodegradable within six months and we've had no complaints from staff or students regarding their durability. We're getting a good product with only a marginal cost increase."
Hack figures the small hike is more than offset by the positive environmental impacts. The cost is recovered in the school's Cafetorium service where the daily specials are offered up for $4, and that price hasn't moved upwards in a few years and they want to keep it that way so that one solid meal per day for each student is available at a very reasonable price.
With a school population of around 850, there is a pretty strong buy-in from the students who enjoy a noon-hour break in two shifts during a regular day.
"The Grade 9s for sure are pretty dedicated to ECS, and on cold days, we'll get a lot more traffic here when students decide not to leave the school at the break," Hack said.
The school still sells a lot of bottled water and Hack said he's aware of the negative environmental impact that has. "We don't do the anti-bottle campaign here, and it's mainly due to school population versus access to good water. I know we would like to be on board. It's the same with us not being able to guarantee items being totally peanut free. I just don't know how to do that with all that goes on here."
When it comes to nutrition, well, the buy-in that began in 2005, is holding firm. Hack said there was significant "push-back" from students and even from some staff at the start, but once they got through that first three-year cycle, when all the new students didn't know anything other than nutrition-first menus, it's become a lot easier.
"No pop, no chips, no candy. Granola bars instead of chocolate bars ... fruit and muffins. But yes, once in awhile we'll cheat on desserts. Sometimes we just like to bake some cakes," he said with a smile.
The kitchen offers up different menu items on a five-day cycle, focusing on beef one day, pork on another, chicken or other poultry on another day. Entrees will include rice or potatoes (no fries) and they play with the protein flavours such as pork chops one day, ham another and so on.
While they prepare the menus, the 20 to 25 students in each commercial cooking class learn how to do it properly and safely. There is a lot of kitchen conversation, generally directed toward tasks at hand, and no general horsing around. Anyone who has worked in a commercial kitchen understands there is precious little time to waste on undirected deeds.
A typical week will see the ECS food service go through 20 cases of chicken ... representing over 500 chicken breasts and other parts. Another day will see them cook their way through 20 kilograms of ribs. A third day will require preparation of two, seven kilogram pork loins.
"We go through a lot of lettuce, I mean a whole lot of lettuce. It's a favourite base for our salads. We'll usually give them a leaf lettuce salad with potato salad option or a macaroni salad and then there are the pickles and condiments," Hack added.
On the nutrition side, the educator said he hasn't heard even one complaint in the last three years from either students or staff, wanting a return to any junk food items.
Each month end, the school treats the masses to a breakfast menu since breakfast food preparation is part of the curriculum. Even though it's offered mid-day, it is probably the most popular meal going.
"That day we'll go through 30 dozen eggs, 25 pounds or more of breakfast sausage and over 50 pounds of hash browns. It's insanely popular with everybody ... this breakfast for lunch thing is something everybody likes," Hack said.
While he works with students, support staffers Ardelle Pearson, Maureen Duncan and Alena Krets ensure that the necessary details that might otherwise be missed are taken care of, as well as ensuring the food gets out during the frantic meal breaks.
"I know there are guidelines and policies regarding nutrition and necessities. Cornerstone School Division has the documents and a policy has been developed, but I haven't received any negative feedback asking us to change something on the menu or introduce something different, so I assume we're doing it correctly. We stay within the budget and revenue is up, even with no price increase on the daily menu," Hack said.
When the time comes to replace aging equipment, ECS has gone about it in a business-friendly way.
"We needed a new griddle four years ago, so we raised the $8,000 through local fundraising efforts. All our catering profits go to the kitchen for replacement items," said Hack, referring to the popular Iron Chefs program at the Comp that has seen the young cooks strut their stuff on various occasions when large and small groups of people hire them to provide all-course meals or special food features in a public setting.
At this point the interview ends, the busy line cooks are nearing the completion of their duties and freshly prepared salads need to be refrigerated and Hack needs to spread the good word about mayonnaise to eager, emerging chefs.
He, perhaps more than any other educator, knows that a student who is fed well, will absorb the other lessons of life more readily and easily.
