Who would have thought having dinner in a middle school cafeteria would be so much FUN? Laura and I headed over to Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School for the Wednesday Community dinners that Brigaid has launched. If you don’t know about Brigaid, it’s a major miracle. The brainchild of Dan Giusti, former head chef at NOMA in Copenhagen (widely considered the best restaurant in the WORLD), his idea is to “transform the way schools serve meals to America’s school children.” He thinks our kids deserve lunches that are healthy, delicious and REAL, prepared by highly trained chefs, and he’s picked New London for his pilot program. I know…it’s all rather unbelievable, that’s why we went to see for ourselves.

After buying our $5 dinner tickets (yup, that’s right) and donating a few extra dinners for those in need, we got in the short line. A bunch of hyper-focused, cheery chefs, staff and interns carefully dished up our portions of beef Stroganoff over wide egg noodles, crisp spears of romaine in Caesar dressing, a warm, homemade Parker House roll, and lemon squares for dessert. As the caf filled up with families, teachers, hipsters, and neighbors, we tucked into our meals. Yes, it was delicious, and hard to imagine that this is the kind of food these middle schoolers are eating every day, a very far cry from the frozen fish sticks of my school days! It’s an incredible program. We’re so lucky that Brigaid chose New London as its pilot, and I look forward to a future of nutritious food for all school children, everywhere! Check their site for the menu for upcoming Wednesday Community Dinners, and I strongly urge you to head over for one. It is a lovely thing to take part in this community and vision, and we’ll definitely be back.

Find out more about Brigaid here.

Join me for dinner! I’m planning an The E List group outing to a Community Dinner on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.  While the dinner costs $5, I’d like to encourage The E List readers to donate $25, so we can help Brigaid along on their mission of implementing the concept in other districts. Of course, you don’t have to, or you can donate lots more! Entirely up to you, but I hope you’ll join me at the Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School at 4:50 pm. Dinner hours are 5 to 7pm so if you can’t make it by 4:50, don’t worry, just meet us there. Take out available, too!  RSVP to me: erica@the-e-list.com.     Click here for a map.

Here’s the menu for April 5, 2017: