THUNDER BAY -- St. Patrick’s High School students were the winners of a province-wide Local Food Week contest and celebrated by taking the local food initiative one step further.
On Thursday, the hospitality and tourism students from grades 10, 11, and 12 used the $750 prize money, which was to be used for a pizza party, to buy local ingredients and to make pizzas for donation in an effort to raise money for the RFDA instead.
Grade 12 student Gillian Teskey said the whole idea came from the school’s Eco-team.
“We are really big into helping our community and our environment,” Teskey said.
“We really enjoy doing as much as we can and the fact that we were in that competition boosted our will to help the community more, and drive us more to do as much as we can.”
About 60 students have been prepping all week using entirely local ingredients from Thunder Bay and the surrounding areas to create more than 75 pizzas.
The students sold the pizzas by donations Thursday afternoon to raise money for the RFDA.
“I honestly love being part of the community,” Teskey said. “I want to help out and I want to make a difference, so I try to do as much as I can to help out in any way I can.”
Teskey has been a part of the whole kitchen experience, helping prepare the dough, cheese, sauce, and meat.
“My favourite part of it has been learning people stories, and about the different experiences in the kitchen and even with just volunteering and helping,” she said.
“If you have the ability to help with the RFDA, or any other local groups please do and please help buy local produce from our farmers.”
On Thursday, three local farmers visited St. Patrick’s High School to help the students celebrate local food and farming.
Local beef and sheep farmer Jason Reid said the farmers are promoting careers in agriculture and job opportunities.
“We think there’s huge opportunities for young people,” Reid said. “Opportunities for young people to enter the agriculture industry to become farmers, food processors and retailers.”
Reid added that the opportunities are boundless, and it’s important to educate the students on the availability of local food and the high quality of food grown in Thunder Bay.
Farms are crucial to a local economy as they are huge drivers in the community, said Reid.
“When farmers are in a community they buy from the community,” Reid said. “Their fuel is purchased locally, their fertilizers, there feeds, all of the supplies they need to operate are purchased locally and they sell locally too.”
Reid said they may not be the biggest amount of economic impact in the community, but they are stable.
