Chinese New Year in Chicago

Celebrating an "Organic" Chinese New Year

At the Louisa May Alcott Elementary School, a Chicago Public School in Lincoln Park, Chinese New Year is being celebrated "organic" style thanks to Big Bowl, Chicago’s renowned fresh Chinese and Thai restaurants, and Organic School Project, an initiative in the Chicago Public Schools that teaches children about more mindful food and lifestyle choices.

The school’s curriculum, which includes Mandarin, also incorporates the traditions and historical significance of the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar.

Big Bowl prepares the organic, natural and sustainable good luck lunch for 350 children in pre-kindergarten through grade 8, and enlighten them with Chinese cultural activities. 

Big Bowl chefs and Alcott cafeteria employees prepare a Chinese New Year lunch consisting of ‘lucky foods’ that represent bounty and long life.

To celebrate the Year of the Ox, the menu choices included: 

• beef and broccoli (entree)
  
• tofu and broccoli (meatless option)
  
• chicken noodle soup with long life noodles or dumpling (side dish)
  
• fortune cookies
  
• oranges or tangerines (dessert)
  

OSP (Organic School Project) combats childhood obesity and related health epidemics through its Grow. Teach. Feed.™ model, laying the foundation for youth to build sustainable lifestyles. It connects youth with the earth and enables them to make more positive choices for themselves and the planet through activities such as:

• planting and harvesting a garden
  
• monthly wellness workshops
  
• mindfulness exercises
  
• composting and recycling in the lunchroom
  

OSP feeds More Positive Foods through the school food service system; meals are mostly made-from-scratch, organic and natural, and are sourced locally when seasonally available.  All of these components teach children the natural processes that form the web of life. 






For more information:

www.organicschoolproject.org