RAYTOWN, Mo. — Students in the Raytown Schools Herndon Career Center Culinary Arts program are preparing 500 meals for families in the community this week.
Mike Chrostowski, culinary instructor, says much of the population in Raytown is on free and reduced lunch, so all their efforts is to fight back against food insecurity.
This was an opportunity he could not pass up for his students — where education meets civil responsibility.
“We had an opportunity to team up with 15 and the Mahomies, goes through Operation Breakthrough with the Kids Feeding Kids,” Chrostowski said. “Times are tough, so if we can give a hand up a little bit and give somebody the opportunity to smile and be happy and provide them a hot meal at their leisure, that’s great.”
Five-hundred packaged meals made up of jambalaya, dirty rice and cheddar chive biscuits will head out the student kitchen by 2 p.m. on Friday.
Thirty-six culinary students with the program will be cooking the plates themselves.
“I really hope they can see how much time we put into it and how much thought… And like it taste good obviously — I hope it tastes good,” said Ellyson Drake, a 16-year-old who helped prepare meals.
Yasmyn Carson, 17, believes food has the power to bring people together. That is why creating the access is so important.
“It’s just something really special that not everybody has a lot of access to,” Carson said. “I feel like a lot of that has a lot to do with people not being able to get job or getting enough money to feed their families, and so I just feel like us doing this is helping them a lot so they can actually have a good meal and have one less thing to worry about.”
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