School chef, Zach Holley, talks with culinary arts students from Bend, OR about the garden’s role in Farm to Cafeteria as well as his role in preparing healthy school meals.
— by Madie Murray, Farm to Cafeteria Committee —
We had the honor of being visited by nine students from the Cascade Culinary Institute located in Bend, Oregon recently. The group was led by Chef Julian Darwin who put together the journey that also included visits to The Willows on Lummi and Bullock’s Permaculture Farm here on Orcas.
While visiting our school, they toured the school garden and had the opportunity of talking with our school chef, Zach Holley, about the amazing job he and the rest of our food service staff (Debbie Guilford and Bing Mowry) does to prepare and serve fresh scratch-cooked breakfasts and lunches to almost 300 students and faculty every full school day.
This is not normally what someone in a culinary arts program is exposed to; and needless to say, they were fascinated and gained new knowledge in what it takes for those who strive to feed our public school kids fresh, local and organic meals at school while observing all the necessary rules and regulations set forth in the Washington State OSPI (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) Child Nutrition guidelines.
Kudos to Chef Darwin for bringing his class all the way to Orcas to visit our school cafeteria, and kudos to our cafeteria staff for their extraordinary efforts that makes a group like his want to visit our public school Farm to Cafeteria Program!
In casual observation, we have noticed more than one culinary arts program highlighting farm-to-table standards! This does not diminish homegrown F2C’s quiet food revolution. We’re so pleased that pioneers Orchid, Ross-Forster, Murray, Holley, and others are getting the recognition they deserve. Humbling.
When you get included in a tour that includes The Willows, you’ve done something VERY right!