At the end of every week, all of the food that faculty and students did not consume that week gets left behind, but it doesn’t just sit there. The leftover lunches, cookies and fruits all become donations.

A few years ago the executive chef and director of nutrition of PUSD, M’Lisa Kelley, started donating food and it has turned into a weekly event.  Every Friday a parent volunteer takes all of the leftover food and brings it to Ability Now, formerly known as the Cerebral Palsy Center, where it is given to the staff and patients.

“They are a population of people who seem to fly under the radar,” Kelley said.

One of the main reasons that Kelley chose to donate to Ability Now is because they often go unnoticed by possible volunteers and donors. Ability Now was set up to help enhance communication skills, academic ability and the patients’ awareness of their own health.

“These are people who have very specific needs and are often overlooked,” Kelley said.

Apart from the weekly deliveries, for the past two years Kelley’s Culinary Arts class has made large boxes of baked goods such as cookies and candies during the holiday season and has given them to the clients and the staff at Ability Now.

“There were lot of different cookies being made it was nice to know that they wouldn’t just be wasted,” senior Kelsey Fennell said.

The Culinary Arts program is designed to teach elementary cooking skills and provide students with a real taste of the culinary world.

“It has morphed into a cooking class, and a class about cuisine and building skill,” Kelley said.

Over the summer Kelley teaches a Farm to Table class in which all the food made is given to the patients at Ability Now.

The Ability Now staff have expressed their gratitude towards the students and volunteers in Food Service.

“It feels good to know that you actually did something and people appreciated that, and it’s fun for us,” senior Sydney Boxer said.