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Digging to the roots: Food program pairs students, older generation

Participants will be involved in several cooking and gardening projects, and together the class will cook high-quality food with an eye to using local produce and ingredients
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A food education and cooking program that unites students and older generations was so popular last fall that it's going to be offered again.

City of Stratford along with Stratford District Secondary School’s hospitality, tourism and green industries departments have partnered once again, now offering Deep Roots 2, per a media release. 

It is a community-focused initiative intended to bring students and older adult generations together to learn about local food, culinary arts, agriculture and sustainability. The program is scheduled to be hosted at SDSS from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 4, 12, 26 and June 2.

Participants will be involved in several cooking and gardening projects, and together the class will cook high-quality food with an eye to using local produce and ingredients. Individual herb planters will be started, and participants will continue to support the Deep Roots garden - a new outdoor facility at SDSS full of perennials, vegetables, and food forestry plants.

The program will include an excursion to Greenbelt Farms to learn from the owner, John Drummond. Following the trip, a meal will be prepared in-house using spring produce. This program is supported by the New Horizons Seniors Ontario grant, under the direction of chef Andrew Mavor and Christine Ritsma of SDSS. It is open to adults 35 years of age and older, and to new participants of the Deep Roots program.

Register online at www.stratford.ca/deeproots.