Exciting things are happening on the northern shore of Lake Superior at Westgate high school in Thunder Bay. A cafeteria makeover began on August 30th this year, when the Get Fresh Café opened its doors to the students. The vision of the new café is to prepare fresh and from scratch flavourful food to promote local and Ontario options to the students and staff. Roots to Harvest has been working closely with the Lakehead District School Board over the past 3 years to increase the amount of local foods sold in high schools through the Farm to Caf initiative and this project is meant to be a next step.
This new pilot project works cooperatively with the cafeteria staff, foods teacher, school board administration, school principal, Roots to Harvest staff, local chefs, food producers, CUPE union and students. Roots to Harvest staff have developed a relationship with the teacher in the foods lab and students have begun assisting in making pizza dough, muffins and soups for the cafeteria. Students are learning valuable food skills and are able to take a leadership role in making the cafeteria a success.
With funding from Greenbelt Foundation Broader Public Sector Stream a new three week cycle menu was created in partnership with a local chef. Each day the café serves up fresh muffins tops, a homemade soup, seasonal salads, yogurt parfaits and baked potatoes. The main feature everyday highlights vegetables and meat that came from the Thunder Bay District. Lots of new partnerships and ordering processes have been developed with local distributors including Superior Seasons, Loudons, Renco foods and our abbatoir to help us get food grown as close to home as possible in the café.
