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New salad bar all the rage at École Robb Road

The École Robb Road (ERR) salad bar team is thrilled to share the school’s salad bar story. The program has been growing for a few years through fundraising and planning. Last June, ERR found out they were one of the schools chosen in BC to receive a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation who partnered with Farm to Cafeteria Canada. With a monetary donation from the Rotary Club of Comox and this grant their goal came to fruition.
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Ecole Robb Road teacher Iain Jeffrey fills his plate for a delicious, healthy lunch.

The École Robb Road (ERR) salad bar team is thrilled to share the school’s salad bar story. The program has been growing for a few years through fundraising and planning. Last June, ERR found out they were one of the schools chosen in BC to receive a grant from the Whole Kids Foundation who partnered with Farm to Cafeteria Canada. With a monetary donation from the Rotary Club of Comox and this grant their goal came to fruition.

Two other schools in the Comox Valley have been enjoying a salad bar program for a few years now. Local farmer and Huband Park Elementary’s salad bar co-ordinator Arzeena Hamir, has been a wealth of knowledge to ERR’s salad bar team.

“When we first visited Huband’s program and witnessed this fresh meal first-hand we knew providing this meal option to ERR kids was a no-brainer,” said Lauren Clark, ERR parent, and salad bar co-ordinator .

Lake Trail Middle School also has a successful salad bar program and they just hosted a School Garden Conference this past month.

“We always knew the salad bar would be a great meal program to provide for the students and staff at École Robb Road but we had no idea how excited the children truly would be to fill their plates with veggies,” added Jen Hoar, salad bar team volunteer.

“When we launched our program, in the first few weeks of March, the children would be in awe as we set up the meal in the hallway, scheming of ways to be first in line,” said Kyle Timms, ERR principal. “We had children hiding in bathrooms, peering in through the windows from outside instead of playing on the playground, it was like salad bar lunch was a rock concert and the students were diehard fans.”

“We had to make emergency shopping runs for lettuce as we underestimated their love for greens,” said Clark. Many volunteers have noticed children whose plates were initially limited in their selection are increasingly getting more colourful.

“Some plates are heaping so high it’s hard for them to walk back to their classroom to eat. We couldn’t be more excited with all the plates of food and the hungry kids who seem to be as committed to our salad bar as the team is to preparing it.,” said Clark.

“We are so happy to be able to purchase peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes when they are in season from Fiesta Greenhouses who are in Campbell River. We can’t wait for Fall when we can support more of our local farmers who grow apples, root vegetables and more.“ said the chair of the school PAC Jennifer Fisher. Eatmore’s sunflower sprouts are picked up weekly on the way to salad bar day and many students who hadn’t even seen a sprout are hoping they don’t run out by the time they get to the front of the line. Berry season is approaching and the team is already thinking of ways to incorporate local blueberries before the school year ends.

The salad bar team is entirely made up of volunteers. These dedicated parents are passionate about preparing fresh, nutritious, and delicious food. The salad-based meal is offered weekly, and alternates between primary and intermediate students since there is such a large salad bar following. At the end of the day, food scraps head to a local farm for the pigs’ next meal.

ERR’s school garden has been growing for the past nine years. It consists of 20 raised garden boxes, large native plant gardens, 6 fruit trees, and berry plants, including raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. Each teacher is allocated a garden box and the schools garden club has several boxes.

Teachers can also participate with facilitator Natasha Taylor from West Coast Environmental Education Society on ‘Seed To Plate’ projects which involve planning a food dish where most or all of the veggies can be grown in the school garden before the end of the school year. Students are guided in seed planting, weeding, fertilizing, mulching, watering, harvesting, preparing food and finally sharing their food dish together.

The next step is connecting the two programs. We will be acquiring greenhouses and hope to plant and grow with their salad bar in mind.

“The fruits of our labour is seeing the smiles of students and staff.” said Clark. “We hope to continue this program for years to come.”