\u201cIt was nice to see the response,\u201d said Molinaro, who buzzed around the kitchen doing food prep in between answering questions and giving direction. \u201cPeople just said, \u2018I\u2019ll help.\u2019 It was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every day this week, people showed up to the test kitchen, donned aprons and hair nets and got to work on a nice dinner. Different volunteers moved in and out of the kitchen in two-hour shifts, with Molinaro and FFFC cook Sean Joice giving directions. Volunteers who were comfortable with knives went to work chopping herbs and vegetables. Others got to work preparing chicken. People who didn\u2019t have a lot of experience in the kitchen made vinaigrettes, washed vegetables for salad or prepared a garnish\u2014yes, each diner got a garnish.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to add some Lumberjack love in there,\u201d Molinaro said.<\/p>\n For the first shift on Monday morning, the menu was Greek-style chicken, rosemary roasted potatoes and salad. The group started by picking fresh rosemary from the HRM garden. The opportunity to use the abundance of fresh herbs in the garden is one reason Molinaro picked the menu he did.<\/p>\n Getting to harvest the herbs was an unexpected delight for cousins Kyrah Carrola<\/strong> and Jaeda Sesma<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is very new, and it seems interesting and fun,\u201d said Carrola, a freshman dental hygiene student, as she minced the aromatic, its fragrance filling the kitchen. Sesma, a sophomore nursing student, agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought we were going to be boxing up food, but instead I got to pick rosemary,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cWe\u2019ve never done that before.\u201d<\/p>\n The cousins were both interested in a service opportunity when they got an email about helping to prepare meals. They jumped at the chance to learn a little about cooking while also helping their community.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people that are definitely less fortunate than other\u2014people who are struggling to have food, even when they\u2019re working,\u201d Sesma said.<\/p>\n Jordan Fendley, the sophomore class president at Coconino High School, took advantage of a day off to volunteer at the kitchen. Her mother works at NAU and got an email asking for volunteers, and Fendley, eager for a chance to earn some service hours, signed up. She loves cooking\u2014and is comfortable with a knife\u2014but was willing to take on whatever task was needed. She did service in school, she said, but she wanted to expand that reach to the community.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought this would be a great way to serve,\u201d Fendley said.<\/p>\n For senior Michael Hopper<\/strong>, who\u2019s an HRM major, being in the kitchen was nothing unusual\u2014the test kitchen or his own. He regularly cooks at home, and as someone preparing to work in restaurants, this was great experience.<\/p>\n \u201cI had free time on my hands, so I thought I\u2019d come here and help,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s better than binge-watching \u2018Friday Night Lights.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Experience was on Molinaro\u2019s mind too. While volunteering was open to everyone, he set aside the lion\u2019s share of work on Tuesday and Thursday for two of his classes to be in the kitchen cooking. They\u2019re going to be chopping onions either way, he joked\u2014better to do it to fill stomachs than for a grade.<\/p>\n \u201cService learning, here we come!\u201d Molinaro said.<\/p>\n This opportunity, combined with 18 months of pandemic learning, is changing how he looks at his lesson plans. Before 2020, his classes would cook for each other and a few invitees. COVID-19 made that unsafe, so instead, they cooked boxed meals and donated them to the Boys & Girls Club<\/a>. The result wasn\u2019t just good food and resume-building experience; it was students who were cooking with a purpose. It helped them connect with their \u201cwhy,\u201d Molinaro said\u2014the motivation for each of them to be in the kitchen, planning and preparing meals, learning knife cuts and nutrition. It\u2019s not enough to know what you\u2019re doing; he wants them to know their own personal reasons for why they\u2019re doing it.<\/p>\n For Darryl Colebank<\/strong>, a financial oversight analyst at NAU, his \u201cwhy\u201d was simple.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been troubled with that\u2019s going on in the world and the way people are treating each other,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been looking for something to do for the community and saw this and volunteered.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not his first time pitching in\u2014Colebank was one of many Lumberjacks who showed up to help fill sandbags and clean up after flooding in Flagstaff this summer. Chopping rosemary was a breeze compared to that, but regardless of the task, he was happy to be there.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great NAU is doing this,\u201d he said as he stripped the rosemary leaves off the sprig and grabbed his knife. \u201cIt\u2019s great that we\u2019re part of this community.\u201d<\/p>\n See more photos from the test kitchen.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heidi Toth | NAU Communications <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Chef](\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/E_2NR5SUcAkuBlT.jpg\")
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\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n