WOODBURY — Rain, snow, or shine the annual Senior Holiday Drive-Thru Luncheon is back in full swing with the culinary students preparing for one of their biggest events of the year Dec. 5.
NHS culinary instructor John Dominello along with his students are busy in the kitchen putting together a meal based around the idea of a Thanksgiving dinner for their 16th annual luncheon.
“All of the food is made by students. Most of it is made in my Advanced Culinary class,” stated Dominello, “but Culinary 1 and Culinary 2 classes also help in preparing this meal.”
Haylee Molina, a senior in Dominello’s Advanced Culinary class, has been a part of this event for two years. She enjoys being able to work with the other students and see the meal come together.
“The Advanced Culinary class does most of their prepping, but with help from Culinary 1 and 2 classes, we are able to get everything together,” says Molina. “The Culinary 1 class helped in making the corn muffin that we then wrapped and will be putting in the boxes. Even with the little things from other classes, it brings the whole meal together.”
This event not only allows other classes to work together, but it also gives the community a chance to help in providing the ingredients that help bring this meal together.
“This year the meal will consist of turkey pot pies; these are made with local produce from Roden’s and Logue Farm. It is served with glazed carrots coated in honey from our hives here at the school,” says Dominello. “The meal will also include a New England cranberry orange relish, maple basil corn muffins, and sage dressing and pan gravy. We also serve a spiced apple crumb tart made with apples donated from March Farm in Bethlehem. It is topped with a spiced cinnamon streusel.”
In the best interest of bringing people together, this meal captures all aspects. It combines local businesses, classes at Nonnewaug and senior citizens within the community together over a shared meal.
The final part of the meal is passing out the meals to the senior citizens. This part of the meals is where most memories are made.
“I look forward to being able to see the seniors and how happy they look when getting their food,” adds Molina. “They always seem so grateful and enjoy conversation with us.”
