Laura Raymond got a crunchy welcome to the Quilcene school campus.

Raymond, the Regional Markets Program Manager for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, visited the school district on Taste Washington Day to learn about Quilcene’s culinary arts and farm-to-school program.

But before Raymond sat down to enjoy a lunch with the school’s third- through fifth-grade students, Quilcene Principal Sean Moss had an idea.

Washington-grown apples were on the menu, of course, for Taste Washington Day. So Moss asked the dozens of kids to hold their apples aloft, and on the count of 1-2-3, take a synchronized bite.

Then came the “Crunch!”

“Wow! You really can hear it!” Moss said.

During Raymond’s visit, she met with Crystal Manly, the school district’s culinary arts teacher and its Director of Food and Nutrition. Manly is just the third person to lead the food service program in its 50-year history.

Manly told her of the district’s success in providing students with on-the-job training in vocational cooking, with some graduates moving on to employment in the industry.

Raymond also got the chance to visit the school’s garden and meet with high school students who talked about their experience with Quilcene’s culinary arts program.

District Superintendent Frank Redmon said the visit was set up by Quilcene’s participation in a new grant program launched this year by the Washington State Department of Agriculture to expand farm-to-school efforts by supporting schools that purchase local food for meal programs across the state.

Quilcene was one of
38 school programs that received a combined total of $1.5 million in the first round of grants.

Redmon said Manly successfully sought a $20,000 state grant for the school’s farm-to-school program.

“That kind of put us on the Washington Department of Agriculture’s radar,” Redmon said.

“We did a description of our program and they thought, ‘This is kind of cool,’” he added.

“It’s a combination of doing what the state is looking for, making that connection from farm to table, or farm-to-school in this case, and also having that career-and-technical education learning be a part of how that’s integrated,” Redmon explained.

“It kind of combines a lot of ideas that a lot of the folks in the state are pushing toward, from OSPI [Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction] to the Department of Agriculture,” he said. “I think this is an example of how to do it.”

Grants in the Farm to School program ranged from $1,000 to more than $200,000, and were based on the number of children served by the program or the size of the nutrition program. The Quilcene School District offers elementary, middle school, and high school students, as well as staff, meals at breakfast and lunch every day.

The menu for the Taste Washington Day visit on Oct. 5 included beef stew, with beef from Shorts Farm; veggies from Midori Farm; berries from Graysmarsh Farm; and salad-bar vegetables from Dharma Ridge.

Every year, farms and ranches across Washington state produce an estimated $9.49 billion in food and agriculture products, and more than $26 million worth of food products that are used in the National School Lunch Program and other food assistance programs by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Helping prepare and serve the Taste Washington Day meal was Estrella Rodriguez, a Quilcene 2022 graduate who is completing her graduation pathway with a semester of career-and-technical-education courses for college credits.

Rodriguez helped cook the stew for the day’s meals, with food prepared for roughly  150 students in all.

She said she was excited to help with a farm-to-table meal that had roots in the region.

“They are all local; all from Washington or in the Jefferson area,” she said of the ingredients. “Which is a really good opportunity to have fresh food, and have kids  see this really came from a local farm, not some other place.”

“I like it a lot. It makes me feel happy on the inside because we’re supporting local,” she said.

The food service program has helped her learn life and occupational skills, she said.

The training is comprehensive, from proper cooking techniques to basic cleanliness and hygiene to kitchen safety.

“Personally, I like to serve and help the kids. But the one thing that stays consistent is dishes and salad bar,” Rodriguez said. “Everything else, every day, is different. We try to keep the menu different every day, because we don’t want to eat pizza five days in a row.”

At her previous school, she recalled that culinary classes were held in a classroom.

“This is her classroom, but it’s not like a classroom setting where I have to be sitting, learning,” she said of Manly’s kitchen-based instruction.

High-volume kitchens can be a stressful place, but Rodriguez praised Manly’s ability to keep students focused and relaxed.

“All the noise, all the food, making sure everything is correct. We know what we’re supposed to be doing, because we’ve been doing this for the past three or four weeks. And so, we have it engrained in our minds and just to go do it. It’s very breathable; a very breathable type of workspace,” Rodriguez added.

“She’s like, if you see this needs to be done, do it. If you see this needs to be done, do it. You don’t have to be told,” she said.

The hands-on learning has been essential.

“I know it will not only benefit me but everyone else that’s in this class, because we’re learning basic necessities for life. We’re learning how to cook, we’re learning how to take care of stuff, we’re learning how to clean dishes, we’re learning how to make sure everything’s clean, make sure you keep a tidy workspace,” she said. “All that good stuff.”

“I like it a lot,” Rodriguez said. “It feels like I’m helping. It feels like I’m doing something.”