Quil Ceda Elementary Outdoor Education

Quilceda Elementary 4th and 5th graders move in for 2 1/2 days for outdoor education. Through the school year they have to earn points for good behavior etc and if they get 3 demerits, they can't come. They have classes on beading, canoeing, archery, outdoor games etc. Then when they come for meals, we serve the 4th graders first, then the 5th graders. There are 40 high school counselors, 40 parents and 9 teachers. The rest are kids. We served from 275 to 304 people per meal. There were drop ins each day which made the count rise for lunch. Mealtime was organized chaos!!! It was also important that we have the meals ready on time as they had a tight schedule.

This was the applecrisp going into the convection ovens for day 2 lunch. We had to plan all baking around the meal prep. Somehow we had enough pans for each day. 11 trays of cookies, 6 pans of apple crisp, 12 trays of cinnamon rolls, 5 large boneless hams (45# total), 300 hamburger patties, 40# of ground turkey, 10 flats of strawberries.... I think you get the picture.
This is Jane and Penny. Penny is in charge of the Dining Hall and ordering food. She keeps us on the straight and narrow and our budget under control. She is amazing.

A lot of our work was prep work. Jim & Bob are slicing tomatoes for the hamburgers. Every piece of fruit, tomatoes, carrots etc has to be washed and then sliced, shredded or chopped. Salads to be made and fruit portions to be sliced. Two trays for each side. 8 gal of milk per meal.

Here is Jane at the washing station for the veggies and fruits. We were blessed with excellent team mates. Everyone helped each other.

Jared and Tara were our pots & pans "dish pigs". They are also the cooks for the next group coming into camp. Here they are going over their order sheets with Penny. Their's is a specialized menu for vegetarians.

Here is a food line. It is hard to get a picture of the whole set up. This is the beverage station and the end of the line. They usually start with fruit or salad, then the main entree like hamburgers and sweet potato fries, all the condiments, cookies, watermelon and beverage.

Getting up at 4:30 am, we were blessed to see a gorgeous sunrise.

It comes up over Mt Baker and the Chuckanut mountains. God's blessing on the day.