Tuesday's free community lunch at Altona's Community Exchange (TCE) marked the third time this semester W.C. Miller Collegiate's Grade 12 Human Ecology students prepared and served a meal.
"I partnered up with TCE to bring a meal once a month, so my kids cook it on Monday," explained teacher Jennifer Dyck. "We've done Instant Pot week, when we've done soups. Today we made lasagnas, enchiladas and apple crisps. We're hoping in June to hopefully do a burger one, maybe partnering up with somebody else to help us with that one."
According to Dyck, the money for the meal comes from the program's budget, and part of the student learning comes from determining how to stretch that budget. She added TCE is a great partner for the high school, and this program provides an opportunity for W.C. Miller to give back to the community that gives so much to its students.
What are students learning?
"What they are learning through the cooking is how to create large meals, and the serving skills are mainly working on communication," she shared. "Kids these days, we know they are on their phones lots, and now that we've banned phones in the school, we're really working on communication skills and how they can build that. Serving is one of the ways they can build and talk to people older than them, because that's some times really hard for students."
Positive response from students participating
One of those students is Ali who said the program has helped him a lot.
"I learned how to cook," he explained. "I went to the class with zero experience, and now I have some experience on how to cook. It's been great. We also cook and bring to The Community Exchange to give food to others which is a great thing. I think the program, overall, is the best one overall I've been to in school, so far."
Another student, Jackson, had similar thoughts about the program and the opportunity to give back.
"I like coming here, because we get to make some great food in Home Ec with everyone, and then get to come here and feed it to all the people that can't always afford lunches at home or cook for themselves," he said. "It's great we can do it for them. We love to see the smiles they bring, and the laughter we can bring for them. We love doing it, and we'll definitely be coming back."
Program is aligns with TCE's work
TCE Executive Director Paul Peters says the last Tuesday of the month lunch has grown considerably over the three times it's happened going from around five to seven people the first time to just under fifty on Tuesday.
"This is what we're trying to do at TCE all the time, how do we connect individuals who otherwise wouldn't have known each other," he explained. "By doing so, we're creating a safer community, a community that knows each other. What is it doing? It's making people known, and that's pretty exciting."
- With files from Robyn Wiebe -
