Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart

"We Nurture our Warm Community Through Whole Food and Culinary Literacy"

We at Forest Ridge believe in “slow” food and practice this value by producing wholesome, nutritious meals from scratch each day and share it with our school community. When purchasing products, our top priority is to find products that are local, organic, and “green” when possible. We continue to source many of our products from local, organic farmers and local businesses and suppliers that share our values of sustainability, environmental stewardship, and promoting whole, nutritious foods. Our program’s values are mirrored in the school’s Goals and Criteria set forth by the national and international Sacred Heart Network, which includes practicing stewardship of the earth’s resources and educating to a critical consciousness that impels students to act for justice.

Our program educates on topics of food literacy, food justice, environmental stewardship and sustainability, hands-on gardening classes, and hands-on cooking instruction.  We currently support and maintain 5 garden beds and an apiary, and use these as tools to educate the students and get them outside and interacting with the natural world.  We have developed a seed library which is a student-led project that we use to grow food in our gardens and teach the students about the life cycle of our food and why it is important to save seeds. We have created a unique course that blends the physical and social science of food with hands-on culinary instruction, bringing students into the kitchen, the classroom, and the garden.