TICONDEROGA — Students here learned how to make a lot of dough — and a lesson on sharing with others.
The King Arthur Flour Company of Norwich, Vt., taught bread baking to fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders during an assembly at Ticonderoga Elementary School earlier this winter.
Also participating were students from St. Mary's Grade School and Putnam Central School.
Life Skills Baking Program Coordinator Paula Gray called two students — fourth-grader Tori Lobdell and fifth-grader Lindsay Jordon — onstage, and they helped demonstrate how to mix bread dough from scratch.
Then all the students were given flour and yeast to bake bread themselves at home.
They brought some of the loaves back to school for distribution to retirement community Lord Howe Estates and for a community dinner at the local firehouse.
"Our elementary school ended up with a huge amount of bread to donate," said Shari O'Bryan, a fourth-grade teacher at Ticonderoga Elementary.
The loaves filled two large laundry baskets, she said in an email interview.
SCIENCE OF BAKING
O'Bryan found out about the King Arthur Bread Baking Program last summer, when she took a baking class offered by the company.
"With the current economical picture facing so many communities and schools, I thought this was such a worthwhile project for us here in Ticonderoga," she said.
She was delighted with the results.
The students also learned some of the science of baking, she said.
"At the same time, (Gray) also stressed healthy eating, the joy of baking and the joy of giving back to your community."
Gray gave the school a cookbook, as well, featuring whole-wheat-flour recipes.
JOY OF GIVING
For more than a decade, the King Arthur Bread Baking Program has shown more than 155,000 students in grades four through seven how to bake bread from scratch.
In the early years, said Public Relations Coordinator Terri Rosenstock in a phone interview, King Arthur kept close to home, visiting schools in New England and some in New York state.
Just as bread rises, so have the number of states the program has expanded to — last count, with three instructors on the road, was 30, Rosenstock said.
Interest in the free program has climbed as school budgets get slashed and hands-on learning opportunities through such activities as field trips have declined, she said.
Learning to bake gives "a hands-on way for kids to learn math, science, and cultural traditions, all while having fun," Gray said in a press release.
And, she added, "they're learning the value and the joy of giving something back to the community."
Another aim, Rosenstock said, is to revive interest in baking.
"It does seem that there has been a lost generation of bakers," she said.
To learn more about King Arthur Flour's programs, email Terri Rosenstock at terri.rosenstock@kingarthurflour.com or call her at (802) 526-1835.
Email Suzanne Moore at: smoore@pressrepublican.com
