Trinidy Lees, a student in the culinary careers program at Lethbridge College, cuts up meat as part of her coursework on Jan. 28, 2021.
Students in the culinary careers program at Lethbridge College successfully sold out their first batch of selling frozen meals to kick off the new year. This is the first year the Culinary Careers program has offered the frozen dinner sale.
The first time the sale happened was in the fall semester.
Chef Mark Dieser, food and beverage manager at Lethbridge College says this sale helps them get rid of produce that is not being bought.
“Usually, we have large events and we’re pumping out the food through those. Now, we don’t have those events so we can’t get rid of our product, so this is another avenue for people to use.”
Dieser also says the frozen dinner sale also helps the culinary students learn how to cook. Protecting students from potentially catching COVID-19 from people in grocery stores was another reason the culinary program decided to offer this sale, according to Dieser.
“It has a little bit of thought behind that too. Cause we know that a lot of people are using take-out options for dining and stuff and this might be a way where they only have one stop, can get a few items and not have to make several trips out to different places.”
A student in the culinary careers program, Trinidy Lees, enjoys making food for the sale.
“No, it’s actually quite easy. We do it during class and packaging them here, it’s really fun, it’s super easy.”
According to Lees, so far, they have cut steaks and are now working on the chickens.
The food that is being made for the sale is pork leg roast, top sirloin steaks, lamb navarin, sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour pork, beef stew and turkey pot pies.
Chef Dieser says the food chosen for the sale is based on curriculum and what is available. He also says the food portions are designed to be family size.
Orders for the sale started on Jan. 26 and the last day to order is on Feb. 3. Orders can be picked up in the Garden Court on Feb.5.
The reason the timeframe to place an order is available for a short time is because not a lot of stock is available, according to Dieser.
“We don’t have that much stock. We’re not like, you know, big grocery stores who have a lot of items. It’s just some small amount of stuff and we just have a period just this week and then once we get some new product in, we’ll be able to offer another sale later on.”
Chef Dieser says the reason all orders are to be picked up on Feb. 5 is to limit contact between people.