Mottainai – Japanese term for “don’t be wasteful;” which stems from an awareness of both the interdependence and impermanence of all things.
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On a bright, blustery day in April at the Lycée Français de New York, a brave delegation of Y5 Student Counselors put on their gardening gloves and braced themselves against the courtyard’s fickle spring winds. In celebration of Earth Day—and as part of their studies into the natural world and the circle of life—the students busied themselves building garden boxes. Their mission? To plant and grow vegetables to eat.
The 5th-grade garden project, which started last year, has now expanded to more lush real-estate on the patio between the Primary and Secondary towers. The project instills our city-dwelling students with a love of nature and a sense of responsibility to the great outdoors. More than that: Growing vegetables teaches kids awareness of science and ecosystems. They are planting lettuce, snap peas, arugula, parsley, radishes and nasturtiums. In addition they are planting peppers with seeds collected and dried from the Lycée salad bar. And when this season’s home-grown veggies are ready to eat, they will be served in the cafeteria again.
Directly below the terraced patio, where our 5th-grade delegates were hard at work, the Lycée’s cafeteria kitchen was also in full commotion. Staffed by Flik Independent School Dining and spearheaded by chefs Joel Sanchez and Mark Mosher, our cafeteria serves outstanding, healthy, organic and sustainable meals every ordinary school day. And for Earth Day this year, the team had something special in the works.
Sporting chef’s coats with labels reading “Stop food waste,” our cafeteria team prepared a full-course hot lunch using low-energy techniques. Ovens were turned off early in the day to reduce consumption. instead of baking, they steamed our legumes. The results were delicious!
This year, the cafeteria also launched a new “reduced portion” option to Primary School students,. Any child can ask for a smaller serving size based on how hungry they actually are. This is a great exercise to develop consciousness around appetites and consumption.
What leftovers remain, we donate through our partner organization, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, which supports area shelters and helps reduce our footprint.
“It’s a really cool way to reduce what goes in the trash,” explains Joel Sanchez, Flik’s cafeteria manager.
We hope that the 5th-grade student gardeners will finish the school year with a greater appreciation for the value of food and mealtimes. Because: even though #EarthDay comes just once a year, here at the Lycée Français, everyday is Earth Day.
About the Author :
Nadine Kaston was born in New York to French parents and has spent her life in a bilingual French-English environment. She attended school in France as a child but completed her studies at the Lycée Français de New York. She holds a master’s from Teachers College at Columbia University and began her teaching career at the university level. After the birth of her two children (both alumni of the Lycée), Nadine returned to the classroom to teach French and English as a Second Language to younger students. She taught for six years at the Lycée, before becoming Assistant Director of Primary in 2006.