LPO culinary class grows produce for food bank

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The early heat this season may be a scorcher for residents, but the garden at Lake Pend Oreille High School is thriving in the hot summer sun.

On one particular afternoon in July, CTE culinary arts teacher Rand Rosencrans is making the rounds, pruning back leaves, watering, feeding the worms kept at the school to enrich the soil and examining the crop.

Although they’re away from school right now, many of the plants were started by LPO students, Rosencrans said, with a bit of help from plant starts from Greentree Naturals. Now, their hard work is going to provide fresh produce for local families through the Bonner Community Food Bank.

Right now, the food bank is serving around 1,600 families a month, said Executive Director Debbie Love.

Providing fresh produce is a huge benefit to the families the food bank serves, Love said. Many of those families are also in a crisis of some kind, and don’t have the time or means to start their own garden.

Aside from much-needed summer necessities like snacks and breakfasts for children out of school, having fresh produce is greatly appreciated by those families, she said. Many of the donations are prepackaged foods, and getting that produce fresh from the garden means it also tends to keep longer.

“It's very beneficial to people, you know, not only from a health standpoint, but also just having the support of the community,” she said.

Rosencrans’ class has been helping supply produce to the food bank since 2017, she said. The students also helped start a garden at the food bank itself, which is maintained by volunteers.

Next year, Rosencrans said, the class is aiming to grow 500 pounds of produce for the food bank. He doesn’t know how much they’ve provided so far.

The donations to the food bank fit into the students’ curriculum, which centers on financial responsibility and learning how to take care of oneself and one’s neighbors.

Rosencrans wasn’t originally planning to teach at the high school, he said, but came to Sandpoint as a retiree and began volunteering at the food bank.

However, he eventually ended up as the culinary teacher for LPO — and with that job, gained the garden space behind the school.

With the help of the students, he began planting. Though the garden is confined to a limited space, it bursts at the seams with life.

At the far end, wooden planter boxes are filled with tomatoes and marigold. Others, made out of recycled materials including large plastic barrels, are filled with dozens of plants including peppers, chard, potatoes and other greens.

“I tried to kind of transfer that concept teaching kids, hey, who pays for [the garden]? Taxpayers pay for it. So we have a responsibility to be very, very aware, and very responsible.”

Many of the plants were also started from seeds left by the previous year’s harvest. Students then learn how to cook dishes with what they grow — Rosencrans is currently planning a lesson on smoked eggplant — and get to spend time outdoors.

Coriander in the garden will go into curries the students make, tomatoes are turned into sauce. Basil, which can cost several dollars at the grocery store for a few stems, flourishes where it grows from a dozen different holes cut into the barrel planters.

Rosencrans also works to make sure none of the food goes to waste. At his visit to the food bank Wednesday, the delivery included herbs like basil, but also radish flowers — they make great salad toppings, he explained.

It’s a job that fits Rosencrans, who grew up in Naples surrounded by potato farms and other agriculture before turning his love for food into a 25-year career as a chef.

Being outdoors and learning the skills they do helps students feel empowered, he said, but also teaches them the value in community service.

“I really want to show people that my kids have something to offer, they have something to give to the community. And that’s not just to plant tomatoes,” he said. “If I can get that idea growing that, you know, you grow some extra stuff, give some to your neighbor, share some with a friend, that is appealing to me because it hits so many different areas [of learning and community service]."