MDES Mustang Cafe

We’re on the count down but that does not mean anything slows down around here!
I hosted lovely kids for arts week . We made no rise soft pretzels , and good ol fashioned Root Beer Floats .
Our little kids are enjoying all they can get from Nurse Wanda before she retires.
Italian ice was a hit!
The last pictures are some pretty cool Dudes who are ready for High School😢🙂!

We had a fun April Fool’s day Lunch . 🤭chicken “fries”, potato “Waffles”, and Brussel sprout “Lollipop’s”!
Today we had homemade Macaroni and Cheese and Kale chips!
I’m pushing green vegetables this week!
Here are some lovely 7th and 8th graders, and a fun table of 5th and 6th grade boys enjoying their lunch break ☀️

Welcome February .
We’ve been getting back in our groove of school, and work over here at MDES.
Things seem to be going really well in our Breakfast and Lunch programs. The kids have been very gracious toward Jan and I .
I survived my first state review in regards to compliance with the National School Lunch Program. We got the compliment that our students seem happy . That’s what we strive for ♥️

Welcome back to School!
A week late because I was out sick! Thank you for being so Flexible and helpful to Ms.Jan😊

This will be an amazing opportunity and super fun.
There are chefs from the NEH hosting each week.
I’ll be making Nori Rolls with the kids.

No Such Thing as Too any Cooks in the Kitchen — The Neighborhood House We’re cooking up something new this fall— Cooking Classes for Kids! Young chefs in grades 5-8 are invited to join some familiar faces from around our community for this four-part series. Participants can register for individual classes, or all four. Each session has a suggested fee of $15, and w...

Welcome to October!
We celebrated Harvest week with lot’s of Maine grown foods. Beef for our homemade Bolognese sauce, roasted potatoes, apples, buttered corn, and some homemade blueberry muffins.
We also had our first group of kitchen helpers. They shucked
100 ears of corn in no time at all. We have zucchini, kale, basil, and cherry tomatoes from the garden for this coming week.🌽🍅

I am finally posting a big Welcome Back !
We have some nice changes to the Mustang Cafe . We welcomed grades 2-8 back to the cafeteria last year. Now we welcome Prek-1 to join us as well. Its been nice watching the little kids get choices, gain confidence, and have some social time. Students can now eat breakfast in the cafe to start their day.
This takes some work from our amazing staff members and I am very grateful for them.💙

It’s June!
We are winding down here at the Mustang cafe. It doesn’t feel like it with the multiple bag lunches for field trips, and exciting other end of school events .
We hosted the 4th grade in a sushi rolling session. I enlisted some Seniors from MDIHS to assist. Sushi was our top requested item to serve in the cafe when I put the suggestion box out. The kids did an amazing job with sanitation, preparing, and rolling. I was impressed.
Salad Bar is done after today so there will not be alternatives options for lunch available.
Summer is almost here! Enjoy ☀️

I’m a week late in my menu post!
I put out a suggestion box for the May menu and added almost all of them. I had 9 requests for Sushi so we’ll be turning it into a cooking class for the 4th grade in order to make enough for everyone . Stay tuned …
I also had several requests for VANILLA (🤷🏻‍♀️)ice cream so we’ll try to sneak that in one of these days .

Welcome April!
Here is our menu for the month.
There are also a few other glimpses of our kitchen. Maestra Devora and I made two soups with the students They are in our freezer awaiting the empty Bowls Fundraiser April 13.
The kids love Caesar Salad!

I am so proud of our Students, and art teacher Mrs.Westphal for making this project happen.
Join us Tuesday at the Neighborhood House 4:30-6:30 and grab a handmade bowl filled with soup. Bread and a cookies will also be available for a $10 donation. All proceeds will benefit the good Shepherd food bank.
Special thanks to Kaitlyn Miller for sharing her pottery skills with the students !

Northeast Harbor students take part in Empty Bowls Project The “Empty Bowls Project” is a world-wide service program that teaches students how to make bowls on a pottery wheel by hand, while also helping them learn about food insecurity in their community, and how they can help others fight food insecurity.

I hope everyone had a nice break. It’s hard to believe we’re rolling into March , which equals Spring🌷is on the way ..😉
Here are our March menus and a few pictures of fun things that happened in February.

A reminder for late start days :
WE DO NOT SERVE BREAKFAST ON LATE START DAYS.
the children arrive at school and snack time is soon after . Lunch is at 12, and 12:30.
February is on it’s way . January is going out with a bang! ❄️❄️❄️

Tomorrow we start another year together.
We left December on a high note with gingerbread for breakfast, caroling, snowflake making, and the big kids took their lunch to a movie at the criterion.
We welcomed K and 1 to the cafeteria for cookies and lemonade.
Now we’re all rested and ready to see you all in the morning.

It’s December. I was a little late posting the menu but hopefully your reading the newsletter where it is also posted.
The 5th and 6th grade team hosted a community gathering with multi aged classrooms. We shared shared pie and thoughts on thankfulness just before the Holiday break. Many thanks to my 8th grade helpers who helped get the pies ready, delivered to the rooms, and who lead younger kids to their groups.
This past Friday we celebrated TGIF with some chocolate and vanilla milkshakes. - vanilla was top choice, who knew?!? Many Thanks to a local restaurant that donated some ice cream to our school 🍦😊

We had an amazing time in the Cafeteria this week.
7th and 8th grade students broke into special groups Thursday, and Friday. Students helped in the kitchen, the garden, in the younger classrooms, and some did STEM activities.
I can not praise enough this very capable , fun group. We made cookies, prepped the salad bar, made Pesto Pasta, cleaned out the freezer, and served the kids.
They didn’t even flinch when I said “now we’re going to make 125 sandwiches”.

We have a big fun day of Halloween tomorrow and then here comes November!
Here are some fun photos of our cafeteria life.

October Menus are here !
We’re relying heavily on our salad bar to keep the kids healthy in addition to our main entrée .
Let me know if your child has a favorite item, deli salad, or any additional things they would like to see offered.
🎃🥒🥕🍅🌽

MDES represents! Many of our students dressed in Red in support of our Lobster Community. I didn’t get a pic of the little ones but they were decked out as well. ♥️🦞🌲

Welcome back to the Mustang Cafe Cafeteria.
Jan and I have been busy getting used to new ways of serving our Breakfast, and Lunch. It’s been super great seeing the kids in person.
We have slowly integrated our salad bar and we’re adding new items each day. We’ve been lucky to serve Cukes, and tomatoes from our garden. So far the hard boiled eggs, and fresh Mozzarella are top picks! We’ll be adding different deli salads periodically to keep things interesting.
Come see our beautiful cafe at the Open House Tuesday September, 20 from 4:30-5:30.