Nourishment

Om Puush-Ne Na-ma-ha

(We pay homage to the One who nourishes all)

 The children at Alpine Children's House will thrive on the nourishment they receive from eating food they prepare themselves while recognizing all parts of life great and small that gave their energy to make this food possible for them.

The food we will prepare at ACH will be of high quality-- I will buy local grains and beans from Cayuga Pure Organics, grow vegetables in the school garden, buy from local CSA's (like my brother's Muddy Finger's Farm) and local suppliers (like Regional Access), serve only local organic cow and goat milk, pick local fruit at its peak of freshness, and preserve it through drying and freezing to use throughout the school year. We will learn to love sprouts as we watch them grow from seed.  We will alternate the use of animal milk with freshly made nut milks. There will be absolutely NO corn syrup, refined sugars, artificial colors or flavors, or hydrogenated oil in any of the food that is to nourish the children. We should only be putting whole, natural foods into our beautiful little children.

Eating lunch out of a box or bag creates the need for packaging into individual servings.  All those individual servings either have to be thrown away or cleaned and used again. Packing a lunch is a lot of extra work for the parent  As a parent, I know how unnerving it is to have lunchboxes come home still half full of food. I have seen so much food wasted in the packed-lunch scenario. I also see a LOT of garbage that comes from this way. At ACH we will strive for zero waste from our program, constantly searching out ways to reduce our footprint.

By having lunch be a real meal, enjoyed with friends while trying out new tastes and practicing grace and courtesy at the table, the children will experience the joy that eating should be.