I am super excited to announce that one of my school events on Food Revolution Day will be hosting a large-scale hands-on cooking session at Northview Heights High School (Bathurst and Finch, North York) with the entire student body of 1500!! The students will be making Jamie's Food Rev champion Squash-It Sandwich on May 15th!!
Not only did we get the very generous donation from Sobeys' to support all the sandwich ingredients, we will be connecting live with Jamie Oliver himself in London U.K. via videoconferencing during part of the hands-on session through his Food Tube channel. Northview (click on to read more about the awesome school) is the poster school for everything Food Rev stands for. Their 176 enrolled grades 10 to 12 students along with three teachers, seven program assistants and student volunteers cook everything from scratch every day to make the lunch meals served in the school cafeteria. Northview’s family of schools, like Wilmington and CH Best Public Schools, are often invited where the grade 3s and 4s come and participate in hands-on cooking, baking activities and gardening with the welcoming culinary students.
Northview partners with Community Hub, their adjacent community centre, to grow food in their shared community garden managed by students and volunteers. And they partner with North York Harvest Food Bank located in the school as a dignified space for food assistance. Specialist High Skills Major students worked with public health nurses to develop a plan (based on the strategies of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship) to inform community members of Toronto Food Truck, which delivers fresh produce. Aside from the great teachers and a wonderfully-run Culinary department, it's another reason why I love Northview so much- their inclusivity and sense of community! Is this an amazing school or what?
The amount of detailed logistics to pull off such a large event is astounding! Let me give you a perspective of what's involved. Rallying the entire school body- principal, 100 teachers and 1500 students for their full participation (this was met with utter enthusiasm), getting approved sponsorship for the huge amount of ingredients for 1500 sandwiches, ordering and arranging for the prep work for the sandwiches, moving the school schedule around to accommodate the hands-on session and live connection time with Jamie, organizing the space in the cafeteria, library and gymnasium to accommodate to the participating students, inviting schools across the TDSB to watch the coverage from their end with equipment sponsored by a videoconferencing company and coordinating with them for their expert technical knowledge to provide the live connection via various locations throughout Northview. As the school Librarian Julia Ross, a passionate advocate of videoconferencing so well puts, "this incredibly exciting event would not be taking place LIVE with Jamie Oliver without the combined efforts of the dynamic Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Team, Northview's talented Chef Dimitra and her amazing Culinary Arts Team, the unwavering support of TDSB IT Administration, the unwavering support of Northview's Principal, Peter Paputsis, and of course the generous support of both of these sponsoring institutions- Sobeys and AVI-SPL Canada." - their outstanding efforts will not go unnoticed!
I couldn't be happier working with such an incredibly passionate and devoted team- Librarian Julia Ross and Chef-Teacher Dimitra K. Just 8 more days to go.... I can't imagine the adrenaline and energy at the school on Food Rev Day, I just hope I don't pass out from all the excitement!
Credit: Julia Ross Julia Ross, me and Chef-teacher Dimitra |
Jamie is a busy man on Food Rev Day and we are happy to connect with him for a brief moment
on his Food Tube channel May 15th between 11:13 to 11:18 a.m EST. See you there!
The Champion Squash-It Sandwich- a whole lotta' fun smashing, squashing and eating it!
If you haven't signed the petition, please do and share it with all your friends. Together we can make a difference and get food education back into the school curriculum to be had by all around the world!
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