Browntrout Team Teaches Sustainability, Healthy Eating to Coonley Students

When Sean Sanders opened his acclaimed restaurant, Browntrout, in Northcenter five years ago, he hoped that in addition to great seasonal food, he could serve up lessons about local and sustainable eating to the community.

"What I've realized is that everybody is pretty set in their ways," Sanders says. "The most effective way to create change in the food system is to teach children how to eat better."

So that's just what he's doing. Beginning this month, Sanders is partnering with Coonley Elementary School in Northcenter to teach fourth-grade classes about local, sustainable and healthy food.

"We are pleased that the collaboration between Browntrout and Coonley Elementary will allow our students an opportunity to see green concepts in action," said Coonley Elementary's Assistant Principal Stephen Laslo. "Having a local restaurant that promotes sustainability in practice provides a partnership that enriches our curriculum and makes learning come alive for our students."

Sanders will demonstrate why Browntrout uses local produce, meats and products through comparisons and visual aids. To highlight the importance of seasonal eating, Sanders' lesson plan will feature the local spring onion - the ramp. Not only are ramps in season, but they are the native vegetable the City of Chicago took its name from. Its native name - shikkaakwa or Chicagou - means stinky onion. To teach students fundamentals of healthy cooking, Sanders showed students how to make a simple, fresh, seasonal recipe: a wild onion risotto using the ramps.

"For me as a chef and owner, that's a step in the right direction, being a part of the solution instead of being in the midst of the problem," Sanders says.

While making and serving the risotto, Sanders and the class talked about issues around local and sustainable produce and how far food travels from seed to the grocery store. Sanders says he left the discussion open-ended because the Coonley students brought such "awesome," thought-provoking questions to the table, such as "If you source out local food, how come everybody doesn't?" Sanders was able to use the student's question to address complex issues about food cost and availability.

But the partnership goes even further than cooking demonstrations and discussions. The fourth-graders will plant seedlings in class that will be transferred and tended to at Browntrout's rooftop garden. In September, when students are back in school, Sanders will work with students to create a meal using the produce they grew, bringing the whole process full-circle!

"I believe that teaching children the importance of good eating habits, eating locally and the use of sustainable foods and products will make them the game changers towards a sustainable future and a healthier way of living," Sanders says.

And it looks as though Sanders' lessons are already having an impact -- so far, a number of students from that fourth-grade class have come into the restaurant and asked for the chef's risotto!

Three cheers to Coonley and Browntrout for this awesome partnership! We'll be checking in on it throughout the year!