Culinary Arts students and faculty prepared thousands of dinner rolls — 4,560 to be precise — and donated them to a nonprofit for food baskets for the Thanksgiving holiday.
About a dozen students and four faculty members took part in making the dough, forming and baking the rolls, and then bagging the final product in 760 plastic bags, each containing six rolls. The project took 10 hours over two days.
The rolls were then donated to Food AND Medicine, a nonprofit based in Brewer that works on poverty issues. For its Solidarity Harvest program, Food AND Medicine plans distribute 1,500 locally-sourced Thanksgiving meal baskets to families across Maine.
Besides getting hands-on experience making all those rolls, students also learned about giving back to the community and helping those less fortunate, said Culinary Arts Professor Meg Broderick, who spearheaded the initiative. Their time given was applied toward their community service commitment that’s required for their classes.
“Students got a lot out of it,” Broderick said. “They learned a lot about good causes.”
Broderick singled out students Jordan Blais, Erika Boynton, Ava Carmolli, Erik Eastman, Bryce Ingersoll and Alex LaFerriere for going above and beyond. Other faculty members who helped were Brian Diamond-Falk, Maureen LaSalle and Moira Rascati.