Windsor Charter Academy’s Food Service Department believes scratch-made meals positively impact the health of all children! Across our campuses, we are committed to creating fresh, tasty, and nutritious meals through a farm-to-school model. We serve 85% scratch-made meals each day!
Our Food Services Department is committed to providing regular updates to our families about our Farm-to-School Program. Read more below!
What’s New
Organic Garden Expansion
We are excited to share that we will be expanding the garden this spring to grow even more produce! Over the past year, we grew over 450lbs of food, which helped provide our students with nutritious, scratch-made meals on both campuses. This year, we plan to increase our yield by 50%! For this project to be successful, we will need more volunteers than ever to work in the garden. Our garden volunteers will be meeting soon to create a plan for the growing season. If you are interested in volunteering, please email Sophie Barraza. sophie.barraza@windsorcharteracademy.org.
Students Are Growing Their Own Food!
Our elementary school students are working with Corinne Hoyman, our resident garden guru, to plant seed starts with a new portable grow station. Students will be taking care of the plants until we can transfer them into the garden. It’s so exciting for our students to have the opportunity to observe the full life cycle of the plant and then enjoy eating their harvest in the fall!
WCA Contracts with Expert Bakers
Windsor Charter Academy’s Food Services Department recently contracted with expert bakers who will work in our kitchens during off-hours. This allows for more flexibility with our baking schedule and ensures that we can consistently make scratch-made breakfast bake goods at both campuses. We have included our scratch-made cinnamon roll recipe in our newsletter this month, along with a short behind-the-scenes video of how they are made. We’d like to say a special thank you to our parent volunteer, Devin Collins, for editing our videos!
Vendor Spotlight: Ela Family Farms
This month, we want to highlight one of our fruit vendors, Ela Family Farms. Ela Family Farms is a 4th-generation certified organic family farm. During the growing season, they provide Windsor Charter Academy with apples, pears, and plums.
If you would like to learn more about Ela Family Farms, including how you can purchase their produce at a local farmer’s market, you can visit their website at elafamilyfarms.com.
Monthly Recipe
Scratch-Made Cinnamon Rolls
Download the full recipe here.
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. dry yeast
½ cup white sugar
2 ¼ cup warm water
⅓ cup powdered milk
½ cup sunflower oil
2 cups white flour
1 ¾ cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. table salt
¼ cup butter
Filling
¼ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar light
3 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ cup butter
Icing
½ cup milk
32 oz. powdered sugar
*If it is too watery, add more powdered sugar.*
Cooking Instructions:
For best results, have all ingredients and utensils at room temperature.
Dissolve dry yeast and sugar in warm water and let stand for 4-5 minutes.
Add powdered milk, oil, butter, flour, and salt, mix 8-10 minutes until dough is smooth. For best results, use a scale to measure all dry ingredients.
Place the dough in an oiled plastic bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
Roll out dough on a floured table. Butter the top of the dough, leaving one inch on the bottom dry.
Weigh 6 ⅜ ounces of brown sugar, drop on dough.
Brush with butter. For large batches, use ½ pound of butter per 100 rolls.
Sprinkle sugar mix over the butter that is brushed on the rolled-out dough.
Roll on pastry table and cut into 2.8-3.0 oz rolls.
Let sit for 20 minutes.
Bake 9-10 minutes at 325°F.
Cinnamon:Sugar = 1:5 ratio.
