My cousin, Tanya O’Brien, is a Resource Teacher at Featherston Drive public school in Ottawa. Featherston is a K-8 school that celebrates its multicultural community with students from more than 50 cultural backgrounds. Tanya has been teaching for 19 years and continuously regales me with wonderful stories from her school. Her passion for food exceeds mine! I invited Tanya to share her experience of Salad Day at Featherston….
By Tanya O’Brien
I love my school! This week was a perfect example of one of the many things that make our building the happy place that it is. David, chef turned teacher, is a man on a mission to bring food and learning together into one big tasty dish for all to share. Students and staff have all benefited from his ideas, energy, and love of people and food. 
While we have had garden boxes outside for a few years, this year David was able to help get a school grant for vertical gardens, making learning through the growth of fresh food a year-round experience. So as the outdoor boxes are covered in snow and ice makes the play yard into a rink, inside the smell of basil and fresh lettuce greet us as we learn.
This week was special as it was “harvest” time. The two classes involved in this cycle were taught about how to harvest and clean their crop, how we taste, what emulsification is, ratios in recipes and how we decide if something tastes balanced. The energy and buzz were everything that could possibly make a teacher feel validated. Genuine excitement and engagement in learning are the best of what you look for.
While I am not directly involved in the project, we were all included if we wanted to be. Teachers and students from a variety of classes made their way in and out of the classroom that had been transformed into a workspace to make vinaigrettes. It was amazing to have students grab my hand in the hall and offer me a piece of manhandled lettuce, inviting me to come in and taste their dressing.
The day before, one student told me that she had never eaten basil, but that, “tomorrow I am going to try it”. I asked an eight-year-old what was going on and without hesitation, he told me that if you make a salad dressing, “you just need a ratio of oil and vinegar and then you go to the table and you start mixing and trying the things”. At the tables were a variety of ingredients that students were adding and mixing with thoughtfulness and surprising discernment.
Spices, herbs, lemons, garlic, hot sauce decorated the tables, carefully labeled for students new to Canada learning new vocabulary. They tasted and tried and recorded their findings. They were encouraged to taste test and vote on a favourite. David noted that many of the dressings reflected the cultures from which the students come from. Many of our Middle Eastern students chose lemon bases and our Somali students chose spicy ones. The ones I tasted were delicious! I ended on a spicy note, enjoying the bite as I moved on to my next class.
On Friday afternoon David was in his room sweeping lettuce bits up off the floor, calm and content with a job well done. His next big plan is to see if he can teach the students the basics of simple marketing by making some dressings having the students produce and sell small jars.
Look out Paul Newman! We are coming for you! Genuine excitement! Engagement in learning!
Deep Table 