ST. LOUIS — The marinara sauce served at all the schools in the Ferguson-Florissant School District will soon taste just a little bit better.
That’s because the sauce will have been made by some of the students themselves.
And those baked sweet-potato rings? Them, too.
A small number of students at McCluer North and McCluer South-Berkeley high schools are participating in an eight-week trial project that gives them experience working in a commercial kitchen while also providing their fellow students with nutritious food grown on local farms.
Here’s how it works: St. Louis University uses grant money to provide the schools with local produce and the kitchen equipment necessary to cook and process it. The students are hired to make the sauce and sweet potatoes, which are then sold to Aramark, the food-industry giant that makes the food at the district schools.
If all goes well, the process will be self-sustaining. The schools hope to make enough money selling the sauce and vegetables to Aramark for their own cafeterias that they will be able to buy more local produce.
Local farmers benefit by having a market for their goods, the student body benefits by eating good and nutritious foods, the district benefits by having well-fed students at no additional cost and the student workers benefit immeasurably from the experience of working (for many it is their first job) and increased knowledge of the food-service industry.
The pay is good, too. The students receive $10 an hour for their labors. The money for their salaries is initially coming from the grant, but if the process continues they will be paid out of the schools’ profits.
Recently, four students at McCluer North (a fifth was absent) were hard at work after school mixing up a small ocean of tomato sauce. They poured 400 pounds of raw tomatoes provided by SLU into two giant kettles. Into these vats were added oregano, thyme, salt, garlic, basil, balsamic vinegar, black pepper and pureed sweet potatoes to thicken the sauce and add sweetness, because sugar is no longer allowed in school lunches.
Rita Benney, who teaches food science and nutrition wellness classes in the school, oversees the students as they cook the sauce.
“They get a lot of hands-on training. They get experience on industrial equipment,” she said, adding that the courses she teaches are scaled more for household kitchens.
The students enjoy cooking, she said, because it allows them a chance to express themselves. It is a practical art, but similar in that way to fine art, she added.