Each year, the entire school sits down for a traditional Thanksgiving Lunch consisting of roast turkey breast, stuffing, a selection of side vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. A wonderful homemade dessert is also served to end the meal.
A lot of preparation and coordination goes into this luncheon for nearly 500 people – which includes all the students, staff, and 20 parent volunteers. Each elementary class helps to make the event a success. This year, the Grade 7 class had the privilege of learning from Mrs. Michelle and helping with some of the prep that goes into making Friday’s stuffing.
Before Mrs. Michelle started showing the students what to do, she shared some thoughts about being thankful to the farmers for growing our food and the importance of pouring love and attention into the preparation of it.
The students were divided into three teams – onion, celery and bread. Mrs. Michelle started with showing the “Crying Crew”, as she called affectionately called them, how to peel and dice the onions into the perfect size. She also demonstrated proper knife skills and the importance of making sure the cutting board does not move around on the table.
Then, she focused on to the “Celery Crew”. As she cut the tops and bottoms off the celery stalks, she talked about the importance of minimizing food waste and keeping those items to make stock. She showed the students how to cut a fine dice and to put the celery into the colander, where it would be washed before cooking.
For the last team, Mrs. Michelle introduced them to the trolley of special “Turkey Ready Pre-Seasoned Stuffing Loaves”. She demonstrated how to tear each piece into the small cubes that would be needed to soak up the flavours from the sautéed onions, celery, herbs and spices.
By involving our students in the preparation process, we hope to give them a sense of the amount of work that our kitchen staff and parent volunteers put in to make the annual event a success. We look forward to enjoying the fruit of their labour and sitting down as a Wesley community to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday.