On Feb. 27, about 150 “cubs” — the pre-kindergarteners through first-graders who make up the student body at Cold Spring Early Learning Center — gathered for breakfast. The school was throwing its third annual Cub Café, with Principal Kristen Fischetti and Food Services Director Larry Anthony hosting a celebratory farm-to-school meal that has come to mark the end of Heart Health Month.
During February, Cold Spring explored various aspects of cardio-centric topics in a child-friendly way. The week of Feb. 7 was devoted to raising awareness for congenital heart defects. For National Kindness Day, on Feb. 17, cubs were encouraged to write their random acts of kindness on a large board that hangs in the front lobby of the school. The underlying message, according to Fisschetti: “A healthy brain and a healthy body make for a healthy heart, which hopefully makes for a healthy world.”
Anthony, who covers the school districts of Red Hook and Rhinebeck as well as Pine Plains, created the 2025 Cub Café menu of whole-grain French toast, scrambled eggs, milk, apples, and a very popular strawberry smoothie. All featured local ingredients. Strawberries came from Yonder Farm, Valatie; Catskill Mountain Sugar House supplied the maple syrup; the milk was Hudson Valley Fresh Tollgate Farm. Katie Sheehan-Lopez, a procurement specialist from the Cornell Cooperative Extension, did admit that the pita chips on the plates came from faraway Buffalo.
Christine Bolander, who once taught first grade at CSELC, waved to familiar faces. She now is owner and president of Hudson Valley Egg Company, in New Paltz. and was delighted to tell everyone, “Those are our eggs!”
In addition to milk, Hudson Valley Fresh provided a favorite guest: Bookworm, an 18-day-old calf. The soft-coated Holstein exhibited the grace one would expect from a resident of the highly regarded Ancramdale farm. Owner Jim Davenport accompanied the calf, saying that Bookworm is an advocate for the health benefits of both reading books and drinking milk.
(Murphy Birdsall/The New Pine Plains Herald)
In a marketing initiative to support statewide farmers, New York has incentivized school districts to spend at least 30% of their lunch budgets on foods grown or produced locally. Sheehan-Lopez began working toward this goal with Anthony in the fall of 2022, and he appreciates her expertise. “Once she came on board, the floodgates opened,” Anthony said, adding that she is also skilled in managing the guidelines. As Sheehan-Lopez puts it, “We are the boots-on-the-ground technical assistance for the pieces of the supply chain.”
Around 9 a.m., the cafeteria/gym began to hum with activity. Five Pine Plains FFA members arrived and, following instructions from Anthony, set to work filing cups with pink smoothies. Students being dropped off by their parents took a detour to the gym to get a quick peek at Bookworm, before even shedding their coats and backpacks. Anthony, Sheehan-Lopez, and the FFA group gathered around Assemblywoman Didi Barrett (D-106), who talked with the future farmers about their participation in the agricultural organization.
And then, it was breakfast time! The cubs came, ate, and asked for more smoothies; they stretched and bent and hopped to Sheehan-Lopez’s lead; they planted seeds in a Rural Center Refillery activity. Before they lined up to pet Bookworm, Fischetti asked them to help say goodbye to Anthony, who will be leaving the food services position at the end of this school year, continuing to be a state Education Department instructor in child nutrition, and taking the time to follow his interests wherever they may lead – always related to food. He was presented with a stuffed cub toy.
And Bookworm got a lot of pets.
