FARMINGTON — Jay Middle School students peeled potatoes, carrots, onions and rutabagas Friday in the kitchen of the Old South Congregational Church.
Some of the students in Patricia Schoen’s alternative education class had never peeled vegetables before. They learned quickly as they peeled more than 75 pounds of them for the free corn beef and cabbage community luncheon to be held from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 12, in the vestry of the church on Main Street.
As they peeled 30 pounds of potatoes, students put them in a large pot of cold water. The vegetables would be cooked by church members on Saturday morning.
Schoen, a member of the church, said she tries to incorporate community service into her program for the students.
The kids didn’t seem to mind at all.
“I’m enjoying it,” Zach Espeaignnette said as he peeled potatoes. “It gets me out of school for a while. I enjoy helping out.”
Lucas Choate helped Schoen set up tables and wash them off.
The students also brought along some of the green, paraffin and beeswax candles they made to use as part of the centerpieces they were creating.
The kids and Schoen had also brought in stuffed animals, and Carli Farrington and Autum Bridges were decorating them. They cut shamrocks out of green material to glue to the animals. The two were adding the “pizazz” to spruce them up, they said.
“It is really fun,” Farrington said as she worked. “I love doing a lot of things with Mrs. Schoen. It’s not because we get to go places and miss school. We get a lot of homework done in her class, and if we finish all our homework, we get privileges.”
Part of those privileges was to help prepare the meal.
“We get to make candles. We help put on book fairs,” Bridges added.
“Mrs. Schoen knows how a lot of students get bored in classes. She adds a lot of energy to it and makes it fun,” Farrington said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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- Students from the Jay Middle School helped prepare vegetables, centerpieces and the dining room on Friday for a free community luncheon to be offered on Saturday, March 12, at the Old South Congregational Church in Farmington. Students working in the church kitchen are, from left, Caleb Greenleaf, Lucas Choate, Artulean Thomas, Kyle Burnell, Kyle Givens, Zach Espeaignette, Autum Bridges and Carli Farrington.
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- Jay Middle School alternative education instructor Patty Schoen, left, and student Lucas Choate clean tables on Friday in preparation for a community luncheon to be held Saturday at the Old South Congregational Church in Farmington
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- Students in the alternative education program at Jay Middle School made green candles to use as part of the centerpieces that will decorate tables on Saturday, March 12, at the free community luncheon at the Old South Congregational Church in Farmington. In the background, students, from left, Caleb Greenleaf, Kyle Burnell, Artulean Thomas, Kyle Givens and Zach Espeaignnette peel vegetables.
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- Carli Farrington, left, and Autum Bridges, both Jay Middle School students, decorate stuffed animals on Friday that they planned to incorporate into centerpieces for the free community luncheon on Saturday at the Old South Congregational Church in Farmington.
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