P.S. 31 Brings Culinary Arts to Greenpoint Elementary Students

P.S. 31 Samuel F. Dupont Elementary in Greenpoint is proud to announce the grand opening of Café Dupont, a new Culinary Arts Room on the school’s fourth floor. This is the first of its kind at the elementary level in Brooklyn, offering our 600+ students the unique opportunity to learn more about food preparation and cooking recipes hands-on. It will take a multi-cultural, healthy approach to food, naturally complementing our newly-expanded outdoor Garden of Happiness and our indoor Greenhouse classroom's Hydroponics Towers and Ebb and Flow System.

“We are so grateful for capital funding we’ve received over the years from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adam’s office to make this culinary arts dream a reality,” said Principal Mary J. Scarlato. “We also received a generous Neighborhood School Grant this year from the Walentas Family Foundation which will allow us to fully fund the room with food and supplies and staff for an after-school program.”

Café Dupont features three cooking stations with refrigerators, stoves/ovens, cabinetry, portable washer/dryer, stool seating, and tables that can accommodate up to 50 students at a time. The school's new Culinary Arts Program, scheduled to begin February 2020, is further proof of P.S. 31's dedication to health and wellness initiatives for our students as well as our unwavering commitment to college and career readiness. “Our goal with this program is to provide grades K-5 students with the experience of hands-on lessons that teach important, sustainable life skills. We also believe this program may also encourage students to pursue careers in this exciting field,” said Principal Scarlato.

P.S. 31 has partnered over the past few years with our active PTA to increase health and wellness awareness in our school community, even working with them to establish a Green Wellness Committee. The school has a full-time gym teacher. Students now have daily recess, enjoy Yoga bursts during the day, and classroom Mix and Mingle. Additionally, P.S. 31 has updated and expanded its outdoor garden/classroom known as The Garden of Happiness and staffs a Hydroponic Green STEAM classroom for student learning. The school even earned its Green Flag with Eco-Schools USA as part of the Greenpoint Eco-Schools program.

In order for students to truly adopt healthy, active lifestyles they need to understand more about the foods they eat, where they come from, how they're grown, and how they can be prepared for their full nutritional value. A move toward whole, natural foods away from processed and fast foods takes time, education, and awareness. “Our new Culinary Arts Program will bridge the gap between learning about nutrition and foods and understanding how to best prepare food and what to eat for optimal health,“ explained Principal Scarlato. “We believe it will be popular and effective as a comprehensive program, as we have already piloted limited food-oriented programs with no cooking in the past, including CookShop in Pre-K to 2 and Common Threads in 3-5.”

The goal of this new program is to take a cross-disciplinary approach to foods, food preparation and cooking with our students. Teachers will introduce theme units by grade and tie-into the various curricula by grade, featuring unique lesson plans with read-alouds, collaborative discussion, and writing. Each unit would follow Common Core Learning Standards for math, science, social studies, ELA, etc. and supplement additional units being addressed in the classroom by teachers. “We envision our younger students planting and harvesting from our gardens, while older students eventually prepare meal plans and write recipes, which could be incorporated into a P.S. 31Garden of Happiness Cookbook,” Principal Scarlato added.

P.S. 31 Samuel F. Dupont is a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, a Magnet School for the Arts and Humanities, A Leader in Me School, and an Eco-Schools USA Green Flag School. P.S. 31 is a Title 1 school. The school was also honored as a 2017 America’s Best Urban Schools’ winner and was 2016 Blackboard Award winner. P.S. 31 is located at 75 Meserole Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11222.