| Jun 07, 2017


Last fall, Marcel Giroux of W.A. Robinson Asset Management got the idea to promote healthy food and stretch food budgets by introducing students to slow cookers.

“We raised four boys and they can all cook,” he said. “In our house, if you cooked, you didn’t have to wash dishes.”

So, after talking his W.A. Robinson cohorts into sponsoring it, he arranged with the local Home Hardware in Sharbot Lake to give him a deal (“they gave us a good deal”) on some slow cookers and Mike Dean’s to provide some food and the next thing you know, 38 Grade 7 students from GREC, Land O’Lakes Public School, Clarendon Central and St. James Major were learning how to use a slow cooker and taking one home with them when the class was over.

Giroux said he got the idea for using slow cookers from a similar program in Kingston which he thought was a good idea because he’s used slow cookers himself and is an advocate.

“It teaches kids to clean, cook, cut up vegetables and if you can afford meat, you throw that in there and you’ve got a stew,” he said. “When I was there, the kids were baking bread in them and you can also bake a cake in one.”

And at the end of the day, the kids got to take a slow cooker home with them.

“We got the St. Lawrence College food preparation course people to help with the instruction,” he said.

GREC principal James McDonald echoed Giroux’s sentiments.

“It’s a fabulous partnership, not only for the schools here in the north but it’s also a real community partnership,” McDonald said. “It involves Marcel’s group, the hardware store, St. Lawrence College and the schools.

“It takes a lot of organization to coordinate that many groups.”

But, the effort is worth it, McDonald said.

“It speaks to me about providing healthy solutions for students here in the north,” he said. “And they all got to take home a slow cooker.”

Giroux said they’d like to do the program on an annual basis for the next five years as long as the schools are prepared to organize the class.

“The kids were enthusiastic about it, even the boys,” he said. “I’d like to encourage other businesses if they’d like to participate.

“Just let me know.”

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