Transforming the school food environment in St. Thomas

Monsignor Morrison Catholic School, St.Thomas, ON
2018-2019 (Grant Year 1)

Here at F2CC, we know that schools aren’t always designed with food in mind – but we’re working to help change that.  A Salad Bar Grant at Monsignor Morrision is being used to transform their school food environment toward offering more healthy, local, sustainable meals to students. While their salad bar is not set to arrive until fall 2019, they haven’t let that slow them down. Thanks to Grade 3 teacher, Amanda Marcinkiewicz for sharing their story.

This project is the culmination of a year of intense work by our School Council Chair Ashley Thornton, as well as staff and administration at Monsignor Morrison Catholic Elementary School.

The nearly $10 000 Grant brings healthy food right to classrooms with several salad options. Already, students are benefiting from several upgrades to our school Nutrition Room. Plates and cutlery have been purchased to ensure sustainability of the salad program and reduce waste that might otherwise be created with paper plates and plastic cutlery; in the fall they’ll enjoy more healthy food options from a portable salad bar.

In the meantime, students in the Foods Program at St.Joe’s are helping to kick-off this initiative by preparing bins for delivery to each classroom at Monsignor Morrison. To date, students have sampled Caesar salad, fruit salad, and taco salad. 

Our students are conscientious, with both a recycling and composting program already in operation at the school. We are lucky to have a number of student volunteers washing dishes and getting our food preparation area back in order after lunches are finished.

Going forward, JK-Grade 8 students will be able to purchase various salad options on a regular basis to supplement their lunch. We also hope to involve parents and members of the community in the preparation process, eventually including vegetables grown in our outdoor garden to supplement the salads.

The health and nutritional benefits, hands-on learning opportunities, life skills, and curriculum connections for our students forecast at the outset of this project have been realized. We can only grow from here!