Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Published: 5/17/2021 4:22:30 PM
Last Thursday, 15 South Meadow School students went home with a box. Inside the box were all the ingredients and instructions necessary to make a meal for two at home.
Thanks to a new take on the Cornucopia Project’s Cool Chefs program, students from the school signed up to receive the meal kit that included everything one would need for a meal consisting of Pizza Margherita, mesclun salad with lemon vinaigrette and dessert. Since the Cornucopia hasn’t been able to hold its traditional Cool Chefs afterschool program this year, they created a culinary committee to determine how they could keep young cooking enthusiasts engaged and came up with the Cool Chefs at Home meal kit.
“This is what we came up with for all the kids interested in cooking to still have that opportunity,” said Cornucopia Executive Director Lauren Judd said. Program registration for Great Brook School students is now open, for up to 15 kits of the same meal provided to SMS students, with a distribution date of June 10.
While preparing and making the meal requires adult supervision, the young cooks can continue their culinary journey in their home kitchen using ingredients donated by local businesses and food producers, as well as professionally crafted recipes created by Carolyn Hough, a professional chef and owner of Cranberry Meadow Farm in Peterborough who also serves on the Cornucopia Project board. Hough studied under Alice Waters, renowned for her work in the slow food and edible education movements which was the idea behind the creation of Cornucopia Project. The perfect marriage of the past, present and future of Cornucopia’s link to local schools.
“These kids can do incredible things in the kitchen,” Judd said. “But it really has been a process of just making sure we could do this in a safe way.”
The kit includes pizza dough donated by Grappelli’s, garlic, spring onions and spinach came from Cornucopia’s garden , along with salad greens from Lef Farms. Abbot Hill Creamery, part of the Temple-Wilton Community Farm made fresh mozzarella specifically for the meal kit, while Roy’s Market chipped in fresh basil and Monadnock Oil & Vinegar Co. provided oil, vinegar and herbs.
“It’s a great opportunity for everybody to use local ingredients,” Judd said. “And show how you can make a whole meal from the ingredients you get right here.”
The dessert portion of the kit is not a dish to create but rather a collection of ‘tasting sweets’ included in the meal kit. The sweets are unlabeled in the kit so students can use a key to identify them or do a blind taste test – inspired by mystery jelly beans, Judd said.
For Judd, providing students with a way to continue cooking, while connecting it to local food sources is a home run.
“It’s really such a sense of pride for us as a community,” Judd said. “We have this really rich community around food and it’s a chance to highlight that and celebrate that through this meal kit.”
Judd said the goal would be to create recipes and source ingredients that are seasonal for future kits, but they had to start somewhere to make sure there was an interest and make it manageable for their community partners. There are future plans to include a wooden recipe box with the kits made in conjunction with Cornucopia’s Vose Farm neighbors MAxT Make rspace.
The goal for next school year, Judd said, is to get more schools involved in the meal kit program. For schools interested in connecting with Cornucopia Project to set up a future meal kit box distribution, visit https://cornucopiaproject.org/ and send a message through the website.
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