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Rockland private school goes veggie By RANDI WEINER Cooking for a crowd Executive chef Richard LaCossade created this Cheery Cherry Compote as a
dessert or side dish. It is served at Rockland Country Day School. The dish
serves 24. 2 packages kosher vegetarian cherry gelatin In a large bowl, dissolve the gelatin in the water. Stir in the other
ingredients. Transfer to a 4-quart serving bowl, cover and refrigerate for
three to four hours before serving. CONGERS � Monday's deli special features meatless hot dogs and soy-based
pork; Friday's specialty cuisine lunch can involve veggie burgers and
egg-free pasta. The cafeteria at Rockland Country Day School has gone vegetarian. "I'm a vegetarian and I had lunch today. It was pretty good. Last year, I
didn't eat lunch at all. I'm really happy that they're there," Matt Zeltzer,
14, of Nyack, a ninth-grader at the 165-student private school, said of the
menu options. "It's so much better than last year." For the first time in more than a decade, Rockland Country Day has
changed lunch vendors from a commercial organization to a local restaurant.
After a year of committee meetings, taste tests and student and parent
comment, the school signed a one-year contract with Main Essentials, a
Haverstraw vegetarian restaurant that caters to vegans � vegetarians who
also don't eat dairy or other animal products. "We know there's an obesity crisis and a crisis of disease in this
country, and a lot of it stems from the kind of foods and the fast foods
that people ingest," said Martha Roth, a parent and member of the committee
that selected Main Essentials as the school's food vendor. "If you start
early, if you teach children to eat well at an early age, it won't be an
issue when they get older." Local public schools usually offer a meatless option for students and
have tried to cut down on sugar and salt in other foods, but none has done
what Rockland Country Day has � hired a vegetarian restaurant to provide
school lunches. Two years ago, parents and students approached James Handlin, the
headmaster of Rockland Country Day, about the school's food. Research showed
that many children nationwide were eating high-sugar, high-fat foods that
contributed to health problems such as asthma and diabetes. There had been
concern among organic-foods activists for years about chemical fertilizers,
genetically engineered foodstuffs and commercial feed lots. "We did two things: We took a hard look at all of the snack foods we were
offering in all our machines and decided to get rid of what wasn't healthy,
mainly those with corn sweeteners. We put in a lot more juices and so-called
natural sodas," Handlin said. "We're really concerned about the obesity and lack of nutritional
awareness that so many families seem to have. Because we're a school that
goes from 3-year-olds to 12th-graders, we would have kids on these sort of
sugar highs. We took a long look at what we were going to put into those
machines." Beginning in the spring, granola, pretzels and soy-based cookies replaced
candy bars, chips and Pop-Tarts in the snack machines. Water, juice and
seltzer-based sodas ousted Coke and Pepsi products. The food, provided by
Kristo Beverage, costs 75 cents to $1.50. The change was not made effortlessly. Students and staff complained they
didn't like the options in the snack and soda machines. Handlin said the
complainers agreed to live with healthy snacks for the rest of the school
year, and no one has complained about the machine offerings since school
started last week. Handlin said the organic chips were selling better than regular chips
used to and the school wasn't selling as much soda. As for student behavior � it's too soon to tell, he said. But the younger
children now have access to the machines, which they weren't permitted with
the former snack offerings. With that project completed, the school launched its second initiative.
Earlier in the summer, parents and students fenced in a 100-foot-by-100-foot
lot and began an organic garden. Roth and local greenhouse owner Ron Breland
plotted a simple vegetable garden as a start and asked students and parents
to help. Eventually, the garden will be used with the curriculum and for
some of the school's mandated community-service projects. Adam Darer, 15, of Chestnut Ridge, a 10th-grader at the school, was
drafted by his mother to come help, but it wasn't a hardship, he said. His
grandmother got him hooked on growing things, and he already had had a
garden at home for four years. "I came to a meeting one day and it sounded interesting," he said. "It's
been a lot of fun coming here in the summer. It seems weird to come here in
the summer, but when you have a lot of students working toward a goal, it's
really nice." While the garden project was getting started, the same committee began
looking at food vendors for the cafeteria. Because the school receives
little public money, students now pay about $4.50 for lunch each day,
compared with about $1.75 for an average public-school hot lunch. Richard LaCossade, 27, is the executive chef in charge of Rockland
Country Day School's cafeteria. He worked in the kitchen of the Manhattan
Woods Golf Course and a Marriott Inn before joining Main Essentials. He
takes standard cafeteria fare and makes it meatless. "I just try to keep it healthy. This is a school," he said. "But we'll
use soy cheese for the quesadillas, and soy-based products for the ham and
cheese omelets. The kids that still eat ham will still taste the difference,
but the rest don't seem to notice." Unlike at Main Essentials, the school cafeteria has a meat option: turkey
hot dogs. LaCossade will use real cheese in his sandwiches, he said,
although soy-based cheeses are available. The vegetables and fruits are from local farmers markets, and once the
school garden starts producing in bulk, that food will be part of the menu.
Scraps from the lunchroom will go to the school compost heap. Eliza Martin Simpson, 15, of Wesley Hills, a 10th-grader, said she just
appreciated the ability to eat a school lunch. "It's really made it a lot easier for me to be a vegetarian, and the food
is really interesting," she said. "I really like to eat, so it's been a
highlight of the year coming here." Nonvegetarians such as ninth-graders Norma Kuhling, 14, of Valley
Cottage; Hailey Fyfe, also 14, of Piermont; and 10th-grader Katie Crispi,
15, of New City said they found the school lunches infinitely better than
last year. "You just sort of feel good," Fyfe said, "after eating a healthy meal."
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