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Stony Point Center is proud to participate in a Work-Based Learning Center program with the local BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services).  For two years now, a group of young men age 14-21 work a few hours a day twice a week at Stony Point Center.  Their group is CBI Burke; an acronym for Community Based Instruction.  How wonderful that these young men have an opportunity to have true vocational training; they work in our kitchen, help with floors and grounds, and assist in housekeeping. The job coaches work hard to match each student with a job that is appropriate for them; adjusting constantly based on the tasks and the mood of the individual.  These students will graduate with an IEP diploma and will have this internship experience to help them in finding a job.  Other Community Based Internships in Rockland are at People to People, local libraries, the Red Cross, YMCA, Pet Nutrition, Child Care Resources of Rockland and others.  

Our Head Chef, Donna Costa looks forward to the group's arrival on Tuesdays and Fridays especially when she is preparing for a large group with limited staff.  "I feel like we are making a difference in not only equipping these students with skills for a future trade, but educating them in the preparation of healthy foods.  While joining us for lunch they have an opportunity to learn about and enjoy a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains; in many instances for the first time" remarks Donna.

On days when we are not full for lunch, she may assign extra cleaning projects.  The young men also work with Paul Gilman in Guest Services.  The group recently had a pancake breakfast fundraiser.  They used the money earned to purchase ingredients to make their own Trail Mix for sale.  In turn, the proceeds from the Trail Mix will contribute to a stipend for a few students at graduation.  We look forward to participating in this program in future years.

Sitting at lunch with several volunteers, Chris Vogado came in and declared "It's a Radish"!  What Chris was referring to was our first crop from the garden that was started this spring.  Jane MacDonald was there when the radish was discovered.  "It was big and plump" said Chris proudly.
We were all very excited and proud.   The radish was found on or about May 20th.  It took about four weeks from planting to the reaping of the radish.  Since then more have been harvested.  After showing the radish to everyone he met across the campus, Chris gave it to Duna Fullerton, who loves radishes and was having a stressful day.  She took it and just bit into it raw from the garden with a smile on her face!

The garden is up to its full capacity and everything is now planted. We have planted cucumbers, pole beans (a ton of them!), zucchini, 25 tomato plants and 12 pepper plants. We are on our second rotation of planting radishes and beets.  The garden is an ongoing process.  It is starting to look like a real garden with all the greenery popping up and flourishing.  So far, the animals have not been a problem, so the high fence we installed is doing its job.

The Stony Point kitchen will be the recipient of most of the crop this year.  This will help us to cut our overall food costs. So your next visit to Stony Point, you may be consuming our own organic garden crops.
 
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