WOODBURY — John Dominello’s advanced culinary class does many events for the community, but the Senior Citizen Drive-Thru has a different meaning then the rest. 

“This is significant because it fully allows us to work with our students in a real world experience,” said Dominello. “This is like working in a restaurant.”

For the advanced culinary classes, the preparation for this seminal event is extensive as the group prepares for Woodbury and Bethlehem senior citizens to arrive on campus April 4. 

“We need to be ready to serve at 11 o’clock for 150 guests,” Dominello adds. “We started a couple weeks ago. We made lasagna starting with homemade sauce then yesterday we started portioning a marinated salad. Yesterday we also made berry turnovers.”

Culinary student Haylee Molina loves what they are doing to make this event happen and can’t wait to see the smiles on the seniors’ faces after receiving their meal.

“There’s a lot of preparation that needs to be done,” Molina said. “We need to make sure everything is properly cooked.”

For NHS students, there’s a special validation that comes with preparing something special for the community that supports Region 14 schools. 

“I like to cook it,” Molina adds when reflecting on the hard work that makes this particular event so special. “But also I like how when we give it to the senior citizens  how they smile and you can tell they enjoy it.”