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East End Eats: Supporting Edible Schoolyards This Weekend at Empty Bowls Fundraiser

Posted by Brian Halweil, February 24, 2009 at 5:00 PM

One of the most inspiring elements of the food renaissance underway on the East End is the viral spread of edible schoolyards. From Sag Harbor to Amagansett, and from Riverhead to Southold, teachers, concerned parents, farmers and precocious students are erecting greenhouses near playgrounds, bringing food into the classroom and putting gastro-literacy on equal footing as reading, writing and arithmetic.

The pioneering Ross School in East Hampton has been serving its students mind-blowing farm-to-table meals for years. Some people still think it serves the best lunch in the Hamptons. And the Hayground School in Bridgehampton had integrated cooking into its curriculum even before it built its urban-rustic part-cafeteria-part-classroom in honor of restaurateur and school founder Jeff Salaway.

But now a growing number of public school districts on the East End are following the lead. A network organized by Bridgehampton School district teacher Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz meets monthly to share ideas. In attendance recently were several farmers, a local greenhouse manufacturer, several school administrators and the local coordinator of HealthCorps, Dr. Mehmet Oz's health and nutrition activism group. It seems great minds think alike.

“Kids will learn about food from the perspective that it’s the central part of the planet,” said Tim Bryden, director of Project MOST, an after school program in Springs and Amagansett that supports the Seedlings effort. “And to be respectful of things that grow.”

Longterm chef Bryan Futerman, whose daughter was enrolled in Project MOST, sees a foundation and a way to create jobs in the community. “It’s a Victory Garden, really,” Futerman said, referring to millions of small plots that sustained America during World War II, but which make similar sense in a shaking global economic climate.

Those interested in learning more and supporting the cause should turn out for Empty Bowls, the first fundraiser of the Springs community Seedlings Project on Sunday, March 1 from 12 to 3 p.m. at the Springs Firehouse, located at 179 Fort Pond Blvd, East Hampton, Suffolk, NY 11937 (map).

Bring your own bowl and spoon and they will fill it with soup from chef hosts Bryan Futerman (Foody's), Joe Realmuto (Nick & Toni's, Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, Townline BBQ) and Spiros Dimopoulos (Springs Pizza). Donation is $10 for adults, $5 for children over 5, and a quart of soup to-go is $8. Not a bad deal for a good cause. To learn more, email projectmost@optonline.net.

About the author: Brian Halweil is the editor of Edible East End, the magazine that celebrates the harvest of the Hamptons and the North Fork. He is also publisher of Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan. He writes about the things we eat from the old whaling village of Sag Harbor, New York, where he and his wife tend a home garden and orchard and go clamming when the tides allow.

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Tags: East End Eats, events, Hamptons, kids, Long Island