Today was a special day. The community school originally planned to serve salmon and rice for lunch, but when the school’s Indigenous Support Worker realized that this lunch would fall on National Indigenous Peoples Day, plans for lunch got big real fast.
Wouldn’t it be great if the entire school could have a salmon lunch together on this day? Yes, it’s a great idea, but could we pull it off?
This discussion set in motion several moving parts that came together in a wonderful ceremony and lunch on this day.
Cooking for the entire school, staff, and VIPs was a daunting task and one that we were not sure we could do. How do you cook nearly 300 portions of salmon in time for lunch? How much salmon do we need and where do we get it from?
As executive director Shawn Thir was thinking about this over coffee one Friday morning at school, he bumped into Tara Webb (because her son’s mission is to serve tea to his friends every Friday morning) and told her what was on his mind. It turns out, her family fishes. A lot. And her partner had been having a good season. On hearing the plan for lunch, she generously offered to donate some salmon. How much did we need? About 10 kg to feed everyone. Not a problem. Done.
With the problem of the salmon solved, the next question was how would we cook them? There was no way we could do this on a kitchen stove or kitchen griddle. Enter the Courtenay Elementary PAC. Using money raised at the recent fun fair, they purchased a propane griddle for the school that allowed us to cook 50 patties at a time.
The next problem was how to get everything from the griddle to the gym where everyone was assembled. In addition to the burgers, there was watermelon and treats that had to be delivered.
The Courtenay Elementary community answered the call. An email from the principal asking for help resulted in a small army of volunteers who made short work of all the work that needed to be done.
The end result was a fantastic lunch (pictured at the top of this article) that garnered raves from students and teachers alike on the delicious burgers and an enjoyable lunch for everyone.
Thank you to the school’s ISW, Holly Douglas, for thinking big!
Thank you to Tara Webb and her family for donating the salmon that fed our school!
Thank you to the Courtenay Elementary PAC and the school community for your time and effort!
What a fantastic day!
