The lunch program in Region 4 schools will be the beneficiary of a $5,000 donation from Dinners at the Farm, the popular enterprise from Jonathan Rapp that offers both a farm setting and fresh produce for an evening’s meal.

Rapp’s co-chef for the farm dinners is Thomas Peterlik, food services director for Region 4. Peterlik hopes to use the donation to establish a fund that will bring more fresh ingredients into school lunches.For the full story, see the Dec. 15 issue of the Valley Courier and go to Zip06.com.

The two chefs were included among the 500 chefs nationwide in 2009 to attend First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative “Chefs Move to Schools.” Soon after that Peterlik left his position as culinary director at Yale University to take up the position at Region 4. His stated goal has been to help make a difference in the lunches served to the district’s kindergarten through grade 12 students.

The donation from Dinners at the Farm will help Peterlik create a fund to allow him to expand school lunch offerings and to help offset the prices of the fresh ingredients he is trying to introduce in the schools. He also wants to create a lunch website for parents and students where they can learn more about lunch offerings and nutrition.

Dinners at the Farm also announced that Scott’s Farm & Greenhouses in Essex will become an additional farm host for the upcoming season 2012 season, which will be the farm dinners’ sixth. In this upcoming year, Scott’s will be the site for eight dinners in September.