Experience Food Project Logo

The logo shown above is the new Experience Food Project logo. The heart shaped radish in the middle was part of a thank you letter from an elementary school student. The picture drawn in the thank you letter was a fruit and vegetable person with a heart shaped radish for a head.

Whitney Niebeling and Stephanie Barnes

Cooking with the School

This school year, students from cooking classes have had the opportunity to work with the high school kitchen staff during their regular class period to gain commercial kitchen cooking experience. We did a quick survey with some of the students involved regarding their feelings for the program and whether or not they were enjoying the experience they were getting by helping prepare food for school lunches. Most of the students really have enjoyed helping in the kitchen and many of them see it as a different experience than the normal cooking class. Students felt that working in the kitchen, mostly doing prep-work, felt that it was easier yet more fast paced when compared to cooking in their classroom or at home. One student described the difference by mentioning that the larger kitchen was intimidating but also enjoyable. Many students strengthened the knife skills they had already been taught in the Culinary Arts class and all students helping got to feel what it's like to cook for many people. Everyone interviewed, except for one student, felt that they personally benefited from working in the kitchen with a more experienced staff. The two students pictured below, Meaghan McCormick and Jenny MacDonald, had a lot of fun working in the kitchen under Chef Andy's watchful eye. They would both love to work in the kitchen again :).

Food Review

The Food Crew

One groggy morning while sitting in Creative Writing II Toni and I came up with a genius plan to get out of boring grammar work and score free food for our friends. We decided make a project and to have real life students review the new lunch program at Friday Harbor High School, The Experience Food program. One week, five students tested out our new food program and gave us the bold truth on school lunches.

Richard Ochoa- Overall enjoyed all the food. Every day he came up with little changes that would make the meal more enjoyable. He goes home for lunch every day so getting an outsider's opinion really helped. He loved all the food and would participate in getting lunch every day if it didn’t mess with his tight budget. His favorite was the Greek Chicken Gyro. He thought that it was messy but definitely worth getting his hands dirty. He thought the food was light and favorable, and every meal smelled great and was hearty.

BharathKrishnnaa Rengaraju- Our exchange student from India is impressed with our new lunch program. Every day he came with a big grin and just loved the free food he was scoring. Krishnnaa's favorite meal is Bhiriyani, an Indian cuisine. He knew that the great tasting food was helping prevent homesickness, however he would definitely prefer more spices. Even without the spices Krishnnaa thought the food was five star quality.

Miklos Horvath- Our other exchange student from Hungary had not a lot to say but he did comment that the Penne pasta “seemed truly Italian.” He was pleased that every day there was something different that tasted great while being healthy.

Kyle Skoog- Kyle has lived and gone to Friday Harbor schools his whole life. So he knows what the old lunch program used to be like and it is safe to say that he does not miss the old lunches one bit. Kyle said the food “tastes great” and he actually eats lunch every day and doesn’t waste hard earned cash on snacks off campus.

Kayla Steneide- Kayla was our only vegetarian. We didn’t know how different her responses would be especially because she didn’t eat meat. Though our new school lunch program offers vegetarian dishes, it was not possible to get them during first period when we did our study. Kayla picked the meat out of most dishes and said the food was still great.


Monday, March 2nd- Penne pasta with Italian Sausage
Tuesday, March 3rd- Chicken Gyro with Greek Romaine Salad and Tzatziki
Wednesday, March 4th- Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff
Thursday, March 5th- No lunch, early release.
Friday, March 6th- Lemon Rosemary Chicken Breast with Vegetable Medley

Special thanks to the lunch staff and Chef Andy for having sample food and a smile for our food review team every morning.

Photographer/writer- Toni Mollica
Genius/writer-Kerri Goff

History of our Food

Many years ago, the entire island was based off and filled with farmers, who originally came to the island to start a living off farming the lands. These farmers worked all day long every day in order to maintain a living and supply food to their families and to the other islanders. Back then San Juan Island was a complete agricultural based society which provided the foundation of our community today. As time went on the use of farming and other agricultural products began to diminish, the farmers began to realize the reality of trying to compete with industrialization and so began to slowly retire from farming the lands which they had done for so long. Now, after many years, we have come up with a way that more farmers can participate, once more, in feeding our community. Our School lunch program now uses almost all local products to supply food to the schools on our island. Now our farmers are supported more than they have been for many years with this new lunch program, and they are very appreciated for it. Not only are our lunches really good but the food itself now comes from our neighbors so we know its made fresh and healthy.

Written by Josh Buck, Kyle Skoog, and Elwyn Pratt