Community Service Project Helps Quench Hunger

Stocked with massive amounts of ingredients, 25 Middle School students kicked off the annual Life is Delicious community service project, which feeds clients at the Columbus House Overflow Shelter in New Haven.

Students took over the Lender Refectory to prepare the evening meal for about 75 homeless men. Most of the tables on the left-hand side of the cafeteria were being utilized by hat-capped students, who prepared trays of lasagna, a tossed salad, and a fruit salad.

In the kitchen, students baked and frosted 120 cupcakes and prepared a full sheet cake. Loaves of bread also had to be cut up.

Past parent Christine Fontana, who has been involved with the Life is Delicious project since its inception in 2011, oversaw the preparation of the lasagna trays. With 20 pounds of meat, three gallons of marinara sauce, 18 pounds of ricotta and 10 pounds of mozzarella, students had their hands full – literally!

Donned in plastic kitchen gloves, students inquired as to whether they would have spoons with which to mix the ingredients. The answer was no – thus the gloves – leaving the fledgling chefs to dig into the cheese concoction with their hands to blend the fixings.

Meanwhile, at nearby tables, students vigorously cut up tomatoes, cucumbers, and red peppers for the tossed salad. Another group – as supervised by their teachers and some parent volunteers – sliced and diced kiwi, cantaloupes, peaches, and pineapples. Some students couldn’t resist popping a cantaloupe slice or two into their own mouths as the melons were quite enticing.

Once the various trays were sealed and ready to transport, eight students accompanied Middle School Director Brian Christman and teacher Jose Martinez to the overflow shelter to help deliver and dish out the evening meal.

Middle School students will prepare the evening meal three more times over the next several months and have also helped raise the monies necessary to purchase ingredients, according to Mr. Christman.