School Lunches Made From Scratch - Healthy & Vegetarian
The menu was a little adventurous for the average 6-year-old. But not for Mercedes Stinson.
Stinson went up for seconds, shoveling large spoonfuls of black bean enchilada into her mouth, scraping her white ceramic plate clean. She also ate the carrot sticks on the side and polished off a spice cookie for dessert.
"Judy is a real good chef," Mercedes said of Judy Mancini, Unity Charter School's food director and chef. Mancini, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, took over the kitchen at Unity nearly six years ago and since then Unity's students have dined on the likes of whole grain pizza, soy patty parmigiana ("it tastes like chicken"), and bean burritos. They also always have the option of a fresh fruit salad, which one day last week included strawberries, blueberries, pears, apples and grapes.
For her dedication to offering students a healthy vegetarian lunch and vegan alternative, all cooked daily from scratch, Mancini received the Compassionate Educator Award from PETA last week. Mancini, of Lincoln Park, was one of three educators recognized this year by the advocacy group. Mancini was the only school employee named from New Jersey. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also recognized two teachers, one in Illinois who ended a school's practice of donkey basketball fundraisers and another in Los Angeles who had spent his career promoting a vegetarian diet.
The award came as a surprise to Mancini, who had not sought the recognition, but was happy for the attention. Two years ago, she received the Golden Carrot Award from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. "Our lunch program is the extreme, but there are aspects of it that every school could do with a little redirection of energy," Mancini said. "There has got to be a way to cut down on pre-made frozen packaged foods."
Admittedly, the program takes a lot of time and money. The lunch program for the school of 100 students cost $55,575 last school year and the school took in $26,020 in revenue to offset the cost, but had to finance the deficit. About two-thirds of students participate in the program.
Mancini arrives at school at 8 a.m. and before removing her coat last Thursday, she poured dried black beans into a pot to soak, in preparation for the enchiladas she would prepare. (Canned black beans just don't taste as good, she said.) There are no prepackaged meals in her kitchen, and Mancini shops three times a week for the fresh produce that appears in her menus.
By 10:30 a.m., she was finishing the enchilada sauce, having charred onions and peppers in a cast iron skillet, adding garlic, dry chiles, cumin, oregano and canned organic tomatoes. The steaming mixture then went into the blender, and with a few quick whirs of the blades, the sauce was ready.
By 11 a.m., with the help of Jamie Strait, a part-time assistant who also has children attending Unity, the enchiladas are ready to serve, as well as grilled cheese sandwiches, the fruit salad, clementines, sliced bananas, carrot and celery sticks and the spice cookies.
"This is not fast food, it's slow food," said Strait, of Bloomingdale, who cited the lunch program as a main reason for choosing Unity for her two children. "By eating these lunches, my kids have tried many new foods ... it opens up their minds and their appetites."
Unity's lunch program is a centerpiece in its philosophy to teach about sustainable living. The organic food scraps are composted, if they aren't used for making vegetable stock for Mancini's soups, and students dine on real plates and use cloth napkins. Students who don't participate in the school lunch program are expected to pack their lunches in zero-waste containers.
Most of the products Mancini uses are organic or locally grown. Mancini became interested in organic foods when her children were born. She made her own baby food at the time. Today, her 9-year-old son, Jackson, and 6-year-old daughter, Carmela, both Unity students, argue over who is going to eat the string beans in her house, she said. Although Mancini's family is not vegetarian, they do buy organic and locally-grown produce and meat as much as possible. For example, they buy their meats from a farm in Sussex County where the animals are only grass-fed.
Mancini worked for catering companies and restaurants in Manhattan before she took the job at Unity in order to be closer to home and her children. Today, in addition to her job at Unity, Mancini also runs her own organic catering company, recently renamed Burden Free Foods from Go Organic.
Children need to taste something 15 times before they decide they like it or not, Mancini said, and her challenge daily is to get Unity's students to be as adventurous as Mercedes, who is one of her best customers.
She also hopes some students may help educate their parents by going home and talking about what they ate for lunch and asking for similar menus at home. The most popular lunch day is Fridays. That's Unity's pizza day, though it's a little different than at other schools. Mancini makes the whole-grain dough from scratch, as well as the tomato sauce. Mercedes couldn't pick out a favorite lunch, saying, "I like everything," giving Mancini's lunches two thumbs up.
Though, when pressed a little, Mercedes admitted her favorites are the desserts, especially Mancini's upside-down cranberry cake. "I like it because it's fruity," Mercedes said.
Laura Bruno can be reached at (973) 428-6626 or lbruno@gannett.com
SOURCE: http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20081208/COMMUNITIES32/812080315/1150/NEWS06