One of the greatest challenges we have faced as a school is ensuring that the children received a well balanced, affordable lunch. We are indeed grateful to all the restaurants and other establishments that have assisted us in the past and especially to Mother Merle's Deli and Restaurant that provided lunch everyday for the past two years at a sacrifice to themselves. Unfortunately, as of September 2008 they were no longer able to continue, and after much deliberation, we decided to put our small kitchen to use and cook lunch daily at the school.

We saw this as an opportunity to provide a healthy meal and also a chance to provide hands on training of a most needed life skill - planning, preparing and serving a well balanced meal. Ms. Pam and her class were chosen as the cooking class. There are usually 35 to 50 students who purchase lunch daily. Having the food cooked and served by noon is quite a challenge; but the challenge has been met and the students in Ms. Pam's Class love every aspect of cooking lunch for the entire school. The menu has included items such as lasagna, spaghetti with meat sauce, curried chicken and chili.

However, by September 2009, the goal is that Ms. Pam's Class will be the first ECC Culinary Class, which will be a combination vocational/academic class, where students will learn all the nuances of food and nutrition and thus do all the prep work themselves. They will also research their own recipes and be involved in learning how to run a viable business. It is our dream that eventually we will have a new building with a fully functional teaching kitchen and dining area as well as a classroom and storage area. The students, both those who cook and those who eat, are excited and long to learn more about proper eating and food preparation. In our quest to graduate students who become productive members of society, we never do anything half way!

An Update from Emerald Organics.

Continuing on work begun in January of 2007, Fall semester has seen much progress with the group of boys Garriel, Trevino, Rahim and Terrell who travel ten miles south on the Great Abaco Highway to Emerald Organics farm two days a week. The boys have been working on enclosing a new seedling nursery and laying pallets donated by Bahama Palm Groves. By late October preparation was in place for planting the first vegetable seeds. Each week we have continued planting additional seedlings, approximately 450-500 per week. Early December we made our first delivery of salable tomato and regular cabbage plants to Pinewoods Nursery. A second batch was delivered the following week. Kudos to the boys for a job well done from start to finish! We are looking forward to the New Year and our spring crop of lambs… YES, baby lambs!

For more information on this project and photos of the students working at the farm, please visit Emerald Organics Farm website at www.emeraldorganics.org.

Patrick Darville - Ministry of Education Office
Myles Cornish - Friends of the Environment
Ashwell Murray - Abacom
Eric Mernard - Marsh Harbour Post Office
Deangela Murray - Little Angel's Academy
Alicia Adderley - Little Angel's Academy
Devantio McIntosh - Caribbean Veterinary Centre
Roberto Darville - Royal Bank
Vincent Major - Abaco Groceries
James Major - Abaco Groceries
Myron Sawyer - Skaggs, Marsh Harbour Importers & Exporters
Eric Sawyer - Golden Harvest, Treasure Cay
Latonya Moss - Spinnaker Restaurant, Treasure Cay
Angelica Evans - Spinnaker Restaurant, Treasure Cay
Richia Wright - Special Touch Beauty Salon
Madaline Auguste - Abaco Neem
Kelvin Hunt - The Abaco Club at Winding Bay

Andrea Albury and Anne Bootle have joined our staff as part-time job coaches. The consistency has proven very beneficial to the students involved. They are learning good work skills, responsibility, vocational tasks and accountability. The following students are now working weekly under the supervision of their job coaches -

Thank you to Andrea and Anne, and the local businesses who support us and also to our students who are working so hard to be responsible employees.