Holy Trinity launches farm-to-school program

LACONIA — At a time when health is at the forefront of most people’s minds, the new head of Holy Trinity School is announcing a partnership that is designed to provide the healthiest school lunches in the city.

Vincent “Butch” Schuck, who left his post at chief operating officer at Melcher & Prescott Insurance to lead Holy Trinity, has teamed up with chef and restaurateur Kaylon Sweet to develop a “farm to school” food program to begin in the fall.

In recent years the private Catholic school has contracted with the Laconia School District to participate in the national school lunch program at a price of $3.75 per meal. Most of that cost was due to labor and logistics, with less than a dollar of that price going to the food itself.

Sweet and Schuck’s plan is reverse that ratio. They intend to purchase meats, fruits and vegetables directly from local farmers, then Sweet and one of his chefs will spend a day each week preparing meals from that food, and volunteers and students will heat and serve the prepared meals each day.

By using volunteers for most of the week, less will be spent on labor, leaving more in the budget for high-quality, local ingredients. Schuck said he thinks the cost of the farm-to-school model will be “very competitive” with the cost of public school food service.

“There’s manifold benefits,” Shuck said. The most apparent will be meals of a higher nutritional quality, created by skilled chefs. There are also many educational opportunities, as students will have the opportunity to learn how their food is prepared and where their ingredients come from. Schuck said that, once it’s safe to resume field trips, he envisions classes visiting the farms that partner with the school to appreciate the work that goes into stocking a pantry.

Then there are the philosophical and spiritual benefits of the program. Students will serve each other their daily meal. Through the program, they will support local agriculture by paying a fair price for the food. And there will always be extra food prepared, Schuck said, to have some on hand for families that could use help putting a meal on their table.

Sweet owns and operates Osteria Poggio, an Italian restaurant in Center Harbor, and he said he knows that there’s not a tougher critic when it comes to healthy food than a child. His prior culinary experience includes cooking at summer camps.

“In my career, the hardest people to cook for are children,” he said. He has picked up a few tricks, including tapping into a child’s love for ketchup.

A recent trial meal included oven-roasted chicken, roasted vegetables and potatoes, and fortified gravy and ketchup. “Fortified,” in Sweet’s terms, means that he’s snuck a bunch of vegetables in where children least expect them. The ketchup, for example, is made from rhubarb, onions, carrots, raisins and tomatoes, with just enough brown sugar and apple cider vinegar to provide the classic Heinz 57 profile.

“The ketchup is probably the healthiest thing on that plate,” Sweet said,

Schuck is coming to Holy Trinity School with a steep challenge – to double the enrollment of students at the pre-K to eight grade school. There were around 60 enrolled students at the end of last year, and he wants to build that up to between 100 to 120. Bringing in a new food program might be a bit of a gamble, but Schuck said it doesn’t seem like a losing one so far.

“Families recognize the value and they’re excited about it. Right now there’s no pushback at all,” Schuck said.

Holy Trinity School will be hosting an exposition of their new food program in the parking lot, near the Sacred Heart Church, from 5-6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21. Prospective Holy Trinity families are invited to attend and try samples.