Kelly LaCasse is the Kitchen Manager who is committed to using fresh, local produce.

Nutrition, healthy food preparation, and the support of local food sources are emphasized at MeANS.  The school kitchen is a classroom and the home of a Health and Nutrition class, work study, and a culinary internship program. When Unique Maine Farms visited the campus in May, the students raved about the incredible food that was served in the campus dining hall. Kelly LaCasse, the Kitchen Manager, explained that she is committed to using fresh local food.  Local spring violets were on the menu. The kitchen prides itself on the fact that it focuses on “from scratch cooking.”

MeANS was the first public school in Maine to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Kelly is greatly looking forward to produce from the students’ gardens and the greenhouses. Sustainable practices used in the kitchen include composting pre-consumer organic waste and distributing post-consumer waste to local pig farmers.  The kitchen is home to the campus recycling center.

The Food Education Class is an elective that the Maine Academy of Natural Science students may take where they use food as the medium to meet graduation standards in math, science, social studies, history, geography and more as well as nutrition, food safety, local food economics, and techniques for marketing food items.

Photo courtesy of Maine Academy of Natural Science’s Facebook page

Photo courtesy of Maine Academy of Natural Science’s Facebook page

Photo courtesy of Maine Academy of Natural Science’s Facebook page

Photo courtesy of Maine Academy of Natural Science’s Facebook page

Photo courtesy of Maine Academy of Natural Science’s Facebook page