CHICAGO (CBS) — From raising turkeys to roasting the bird, students at a Southwest Side school prepared a huge Thanksgiving spread for hundreds of people on Tuesday.
At Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, at 3857 W. 111th St. in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, students’ passion for cooking is indescribable – and the kitchen they use smells heavenly. But it’s where they get their food from that makes the experience surreal.
The students were preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 350 people who live in Mount Greenwood on Tuesday.
The school says it has the only working farm in town.
“It’s a really surreal experience, honestly, because I remember last week the turkeys were literally sitting in their coops, like they were playing, walking around and making noise,” said senior Nylah Robinson, “and the next thing you know , as if we had them delivered to us.”
Animal science students raised 20 turkeys and grew vegetables that will be used to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. They started cooking the birds at 7:30 am on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the students peeled 50 pounds of sweet potatoes, used 100 pumpkins to make 88 pumpkin pies, prepared 50 quarts of gravy, peeled another 50 pounds of white potatoes for mashed potatoes, cooked 35 pounds of broccoli and used 30 pounds of cranberries to make. cranberry sauce.
Michelle Sandifer, executive chef at Smith Village retirement community in Beverly, is one of the chefs who helped them cook.
“They learned how to taste it. They learned how the sauce thickens when you just cook it and the cranberries pop open,” Smith said.
Egypt West is a senior who also has a passion for cooking and science, but she said the meal she and her classmates have started creating is more than just food.
“I know the real world, we may have our problems, we may have our downs, but we actually give back and see those happy, smiling faces and say, ‘Thank you’ or, ‘Oh, you’re such a sweetheart.’ – just hearing everyone being happy and coming together – that’s one of the main things I really want to get out of this,” West said.
The school said the meal means a lot to some recipients because it may be their only Thanksgiving meal.
