Sustenance and Sustainability
Sustainability Taskforce
By David Lindo, Sustainability CoordinatorDuring our bi-weekly Sustainability Action meeting, high school and middle school students came up with a list of priority sustainability research and fabrication projects they would like to undertake, including Environmental Policy, Conservation education, Hydroponics, Sustainability Garden 550: PhysicsArchitecture Interface, Sustainability Metrics in the buildings at Dalton, Eco Journalism
Eight Grade House Advisor Leo Chen and myself are helping a group of 30 high school students to create an academic poster that includes their past, current, and future work on these 6 projects. The posters will be presented at a Sustainability Conference at Dalton in spring and then at a national Sustainability Conference in fall.
Sustainability Bake Sale
By Arya Prasad, Ella Mettke, and Charlotte Sleeper
Ella Mettke (10th grader), Charlotte Sleeper (9th grader), and Arya Prasad (12th grader), held a bake sale on March 7th to raise money for garden materials to establish a garden on 550. Through selling baked goods afterschool, they raised $360.60, which will go towards buying soil, seeds, and other garden supplies. Dalton’s sustainability action group is currently working to establish the architectural, environmental, and educational goals of the space on 550, ranging from building a pergola to growing vegetables in a pollinator friendly garden to teaching students about local biodiversity native to the New York area.
As spring approaches, the sustainability action group is excited to continue fundraising to turn the 550 interactive and sustainable garden into a reality.
Featured guest chefs include:
On March 7th, Chef Shennari Freeman, champion of vegan soul food from Cadence visited our teaching kitchen
On April 4th, Peruvian Chef Oscar Lorenzzi of Gaia, Marseille and the Waverly Inn to name a few, now leads the Peruvian Contento in East Harlem and will focus on ceviche during his visit to Dalton
Upcoming Events
Dalton CHOPPED resumes Monday, 4/4! Featuring multiple rounds of competition open to high school students based on the Food Network TVshow Judged by faculty, House Advisors Staff and Administrators, stay tuned for updates regarding the hidden talents of our students Get ready, High School, 9th graders are up first And finally, the Math dept is coming in for a faculty and staff cook along for Pi Day join us on 14 for many, many, many pies
A note to our Colleagues
If you are interested in developing a curricular integration in the teaching kitchen, please see the culinary resource page (resources > teaching kitchen) You will find example curricula, links to the form and kitchen schedule, and information about the parameters More questions? Contact Jaz Johnson, Charlie Stewert, or Cory Cowles to start a discussion or share an idea
First Program in the Kitchen Integration
Connected to an Assignment on indigenous recipes, Jessica Barton’s House visited Big Dalton to engage in a lesson focused on strawberry corn muffins. As you can see, our younger Daltonians are growing comfortable and engaged in the teaching kitchen
In the Middle School Health Curriculum, a set of lessons on food access and nutrition included a mushroom soup making project. Soups were then packaged into take away containers, labeled decorated and sent to a local community fridge.
TAMARIND CHUTNEY (serves 8-10)
-seedless tamarind paste
-200g jaggery powder (shakkar)
-1 spoon ground ginger powder
-1/2 spoon Kashmiri chili powder
-1/2 spoon chaat masala
-1/4 spoon black pepper
-1 spoon ground fennel powder
-1/2 spoon roasted ground cumin
-1/2 spoon salt
Soak the tamarind in 1/2c hot water for at least two hours for good extraction
Infuse all of the above spices along with the jaggery powder in 1/2c water, give it a boil
Then add the squeezed tamarind water and give it a final boil, sieve the contents and serve chilled
A note from Assistant Head of School Celeste Herrera
Sustainability and the Teaching Kitchen remain integral to many of our school wide priorities As Dalton recommits to the Dalton Plan, teachers and House Advisors are crafting Assignments across disciplines and divisions that take advantage of our expertise and facilities in these areas Eager to engage alumni in New York City and beyond, programs welcoming our community back to campus lend life to an expansive vision for the visual and performing arts, culinary education and environmental citizenship only Dalton can create As we look toward the future, our facilities master planning efforts center wellness, connection to New York City and awareness of self and others, aspects of Helen Parkhurst’s vision we are grateful to witness in practice today Thank you to the many community members engaged in moving Dalton forward at such an exciting time for our school, and especially to David Lindo and Jaz Johnson in their roles as sustainability and teaching kitchen coordinators.
Digital Fabrication
In our Introduction to Digital Fabrication: Art and Design course, students explored 3D modeling and iteration to create one-ofa-kind cookie cutters Tasked with the challenge of imagining a tool that could both cut and emboss the dough at the same time, students designed objects inspired by personal interests, ranging from sports teams to favorite animals In doing so, students grappled with questions around material thickness, strength and structure and the inverse relationship between the cookie cutter and the resulting imprint
As we engaged with the fabrication process, studio members learned how to model in digital space with Autodesk Fusion 360 Using these files, we partnered with the Dalton Makerspace team to 3D print initial prototypes We used these early versions to test our concepts with playdough Through observation and experimentation, we continued to refine the designs before printing again
With the final designs, we celebrated our hard work and the holiday season by putting the tools to the test This week, our class partnered with the culinary arts students in the Dalton Teaching Kitchen to bake some gingerbread and sugar cookies with our custom designs! Dustin Atlas and Tammy Logan
In the News
Please take a moment to review a recent article "Climate Jobs and Justice Package supports a greener future" in the Albany Times Union by Dalton Senior, Jasmine Wynn, we are proud of our students and their Climate Justice advocacy
New In Partnership: Rethink
Throughout our teaching kitchen programming, opportunities to give back to our community abound Through Rethink, we are able to identify non profit organizations in need of food donations and target our efforts accordingly A recent example involves our high school Culinary Fundamentals class in which students batch cooked meals for forty people, and a quarterly visit from Rethink partners who will educate our students regarding local food insecurity
Theater Alumni Event
The High School Theater Department hosted a dinner reception for theater alumni who attended our Winter Play Festival performances on Wednesday March 1 Alumni from several decades enjoyed both plays and a restorative feast in our teaching kitchen Samantha Koss, Director of Alumni Relations assisted in the creation of a meal focused on vegetarian mezze recipes, including tabouli made with Freekeh and mashed peas, gigantic white beans with homemade harissa, a roasted tomato and onion Israeli salad, a charred eggplant dip, cannellini bean hummus with smoked paprika and smoked cardamom, beats with yogurt and mint, and a cooked to order bucatini cacio pepe with za’atar
Bob SloanHigh School Science
Students in the Food: Biochemical and Molecular Study class have been examining heat transfer into and through different materials They then focused on several materials related to foods and cooking Their study wasn't just limited to ingredients, but also to the tools of cooking that are used to move energy into each ingredient We were able to use the science department’s infrared camera to study the heat flow and state changes in grilled cheese, french fries, and an omelet
In a later assignment, students were studying browning reactions (specifically the Maillard reaction) and denaturation of food proteins Students studied this through creme brulee, egg toast, and Bananas Foster Joaquin Ramsey
High School English
As part of an ongoing exploration of the relationship between food and identity -individual, cultural, familial -- students in "Reading the Feast" took a trip to Dalton's teaching kitchen to engage in experiential learning inspired by a famous excerpt from Proust's In Search of Lost Time In consideration of Proust's writing on memory and sensation, students made madeleines -- the catalyst for the author's own reflections -- while discussing why food in particular should be the locus of such nostalgic reflection The question that students sought to answer between taking bites of madeleine: what is it about food which makes for such strong emotional resonances in our lives? Students engaged with Proust's theme of involuntary memory as they sought to better understand the ways in which food can sometimes be elevated from the realm of the purely gustatory to that of personal mythology
Sean Mattio
