My students need the cookware and culinary tools for creating nutritious meals from fresh produce grown and harvested in our own school garden. The tools will be used for our after-school garden and culinary club.
Many of our students are on a backpack food program for food to have on the weekends, and our school offers a monthly food bank for the entire community, which many students' families use. We are diverse with Hispanic, Haitian, Italian, Philippine, and American Indian families.
I teach at a Title I school in Southwest Florida with students from all walks of life who deserve the same opportunities as those from affluent families.
My students are caring, considerate, and hard working. Despite the low income conditions, they deserve resources that will be current and interesting. Not being able to provide them the best is heartbreaking. Each year, as a new school year begins, I build the bonds that keep me inspired to do everything possible for them.
My Project
I am requesting various cooking and meal prep tools to be used in our school's garden and culinary club, held during after school hours. Our school has an amazing, large garden area where students plant, tend to and harvest fresh herbs and vegetables throughout the school year. The best part of the club and garden is being able to sample the ingredients that we personally grow.
Students learn that fresh vegetables that have been grown by their hard work and dedication taste much better than store purchased ingredients.
Students also learn life skills by learning not only to grown their own food, but to also prepare the food in many ways. Each tool in the grant will provide students opportunities to have hands-on experiences with preparing nutritious and tasty foods. We are excited for students to try spiralized vegetables for a healthy alternative to pasta with the spiralizer. Having a microwave and portable burner will allow us to prepare various meals that require cooking, for example, steaming vegetables in the microwave or heating up the brine to make homemade pickles. We will need the cookware/pan set for use on the portable burner. The stand mixer will be used for mixing a variety of ingredients for baking or other preparations, for example, mixing ingredients for dill dip using our fresh dill or zucchini bread from our home-grown squash. The convection oven and toaster oven will also assist us in food preparation by allowing us to bake the aforementioned bread. In addition, the toaster oven will be used to make focaccia from our homemade bread and freshly grown tomatoes.
Our garden and culinary club will put all the equipment to use for various methods of cooking. We want to provide students with opportunities to learn the many ways to prepare fresh ingredients!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Tabor and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
