'Military mom' shares knowledge, skills with local high school students

By U.S. ArmyJanuary 22, 2015

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1 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – The four-bin composter and a raised bed sit near one of the at Carthage Central High School parking lots. Students built the composter and raised bed. Green beans were planted in the garden last year, and more than 550 pounds of tomatoes were harvest... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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2 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Carol Rosenberg, right, and Todd Burker, a teacher at Carthage Central High School, sort through food waste at the school's composter. Burker has been teaching his students about sustainability, reducing waste and growing fruits and vegetables in com... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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3 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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4 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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5 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Team Military Moms poses in front of their bright pink camouflage food truck during the show. Rosenberg, who is continuing her dreams of owning a food truck, will use the pink camo images that were designed for the show on her own truck. She also wil... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
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6 / 6 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Team Military Moms poses in front of their bright pink camouflage food truck during the show. Rosenberg, who is continuing her dreams of owning a food truck, will use the pink camo images that were designed for the show on her own truck. She also wil... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- In a fast-paced, digital world, it's often easy to forget where our food comes from. Fresh food does not originate in a grocery store or a fast-food restaurant; it comes from the earth.

One Fort Drum spouse is helping to teach students at Carthage Central High School how a little hard work, food preparation skills and business knowhow can turn their sustainability projects into a way to make a little "green."

Carol Rosenberg, who owns a food truck and recently was a contestant on Food Network's Great Food Truck Race, has teamed up with Todd Burker, a teacher at CHS, to teach students about sustainability. Her 16-year-old son, Oden, also attends the school.

"This is a great program to work with," Rosenberg said. "Too many of our kids don't know where our food comes from. I think the food truck is a way to give back, further the program and show kids how to process food."

The after-school activity is a grant-funded enrichment program through Case Works, said Burker, who teaches advanced placement world history and human geography, and global studies.

Most of what Burker's students have been learning has focused on community gardens located on campus. Through the program, students grew green beans and roughly 550 pounds of tomatoes last year.

Another project the group began last June was composting.

"A lot of the initiatives center on showing kids the loop -- you take the cafeteria food, put it in the composter, it turns into fertile soil and then you can use that to grow food, which in turn, goes back to the cafeteria," Burker said.

Every day, students collect food waste from the cafeteria, weigh it and add it to a compost heap.

"Any food waste or organic-based waste that we can take from kids dumping trays goes in the composter," Burker said. "We have a separate barrel set up. The people in the kitchen have been great.

"They take their prep waste when they're making lunch and throw it in the barrel," he continued. "We weigh it and pick out the contaminants to make sure the compost is clean; then we weigh the contaminants."

Each day, students weigh all of the food waste before weighing the contaminants -- utensils, plastic and other non-biodegradeable waste -- to ensure they know how much food waste is added to the composter.

Accurate record keeping is another skill the students learn. Since June, the students have composted more than 6,000 pounds of cafeteria food waste, Burker added.

"The record keeping also allows the class to inform the school about what lunch days provide more waste so they can consider altering the menu," he said.

Burker and his students will use the soil product from the composter to grow more produce this spring and summer.

"We're hoping to get some farm-to-school contacts with local farmers in the area and do more with growing our gardens," he said. "We are partnering up with some people to show kids the importance of decreasing the use of fossil fuels by buying things locally and knowing where your food comes from."

Although Rosenberg and her team did not win The Great Food Truck Race, she has not left her dreams of operating her own food truck at the curb. She is in the process of outfitting her own food truck that she hopes will lead to a successful culinary endeavor and as a bonus, also will benefit the students at CHS.

"Carol came to me and talked to me about using her food truck to process some of the food that we have," Burker said. ""Right now, when we give tomatoes to the cafeteria, it ends up as sliced tomatoes on the deli line or cubed tomatoes in a salsa."

Burker and Rosenberg want to take that initiative a step further. They want to teach the students how to prepare food with the fresh produce they are growing.

"We want to make it into a product like a tomato sauce or a 'Comet Sauce' -- something we can use in the concession stand," Burker said. "Not a lot of schools do this sort of thing. It's something we'll be growing, consuming and processing, and we're also teaching kids how to handle food. Carol stepped in and offered to help us with that."

Burker said he hopes that this project will help start a culture change in the students.

"A culture of sustainability can replace the 'throw away' culture," he said. "It has to happen. It should be important to everybody. The carrying capacity of the planet -- best-case scenario -- is about 20 billion people.

"It's not really about population anymore; it's about consumption," Burker continued. "If you can close that loop in a few sections of your life where you're not just throwing things away, but you're reusing things, recycling or composting -- it makes a difference. It's generational, and I think this is a concept that will do (the students) some good. In a school of 1,000 kids, I think we're making a pretty big dent."

Rosenberg agreed, adding that many countries already do these things, and American schools can do the same.

"It's not ingrained in our kids; a lot of them just throw everything out," Rosenberg said. "They'll be more aware of it as adults if they're exposed to it all throughout school and high school. They'll think of it as just something you do."

"I think the food truck is a way to give back, further the program and show kids how to process food," she added. "They're making the dirt all the way to the sauce. They'll have to market it and label it."

Rosenberg, who was a personal chef, will teach the students how to make the sauce and how to market their products.

While the end product will be profitable, the process of getting to that point requires students to get their hands dirty -- something the teens do not seem to mind.

Rosemary Aviste, 16, said she joined the group because she was interested in adopting a more "green" lifestyle.

"I think it's a great program," she said. "We live on this planet and we need to take care of it. I don't think people take the initiative to do that."

Aviste explained that a lot of her peers do not know where their food comes from and they do not understand the concept of sustainability.

"I think around here, they may understand a little more because there are so many farmers, so they understand to an extent," she said. "At the same time, they don't know and a lot of them don't care. With pre-processed food, they don't know how bad it is for you."

Aviste added that she is looking forward to growing produce when the weather warms up.

"I love cooking, and fresh produce is the best to cook with. It just tastes better," she said.

Elizabeth Root, 14, agreed, adding that she has learned a lot about how some pre-packaged foods are made.

"I was never really interested in doing this kind of thing, but when Mr. Burker told the freshmen class about it, I realized that I had a responsibility to my planet," she said. "I signed up and I'm actually having a lot of fun.

"They tell you about processed food in school, but you don't really get it until you're working with it," Root added. "I'm eating a lot more salads, and I'm trying to be a lot more careful because I know what happens to the pre-packaged processed foods."

While Root is looking forward to the program's upcoming projects, she admits that cooking isn't her strong point.

"I'm not a good cook, but I'll try to help!" she said, laughing. "I wish more people would be on board. Everybody should do it!"