Disclaimer: I extern at Alchemy when not working for the King-Chavez Neighborhood of Schools or attending class at the San Diego Culinary Institute.
Listening a lot to the AWOLNATION song Sail, and the line “Maybe I’m a different breed” struck me as apropos for the title of this article because it reflects both Ms. Valine Moreno and Alchemy Restaurant. Ms. Moreno is the ELD teacher at King-Chavez Preparatory Academy, and she also organizes/coordinates/wrangles/strategizes/etc. the Prep Summer Conservation Academy program, the program I’ve blogged about previously because I perform food demonstrations for the kids. She is a fantastic teacher and human being who works tirelessly for the students in the King-Chavez family, and she is only one small example of how many who work for our school system have to be a different breed. Teachers at the Prep and the greater King-Chavez community (and many schools elsewhere, but I’m not gonna get into a helicopter view) have to be everything to everyone. Not merely a teacher, a principal, a counselor, a disciplinarian, a shoulder to lean on, an empathetic ear, a compassionate heart. You need to be all these things for our students, you need to be a Renaissance human being because you might be the only one. Hell, you need to be the Avengers packaged into one individual, and you need to take on 120 or more kids each day for 180 or more days! You’d better have regenerative powers or else you’ll be worn down like the erasers on the pencils that disappear faster than the Flash (I”ll try to stop mixing metaphors).
Fortunately, most of the men and women at King-Chavez I’ve had the pleasure to work with can shoulder the load. And they do it because they love the students, the reason for taking on such an arduous, often thankless, mission. It’s not that public education is all pain and suffering and “”Woe is me?” hysteria; it’s just that working with kids (primary or secondary) requires more of you than there is to give. And somehow you have to find a way to give because those students deserve everything and more.
Here’s an example of love for students:
Ms. Moreno is in the foreground on the left side. These are only a handful of the SCA students. This is a Saturday. At the Barrio Logan Library. Ms. Moreno and the students were gathering research material to help them write their research papers. All of this is voluntary on Ms. Moreno and the students’ part, but nothing is done without thought. Ms. Moreno has been planning and working hard to make this club a success all throughout the year, while teaching ELD to 6th,7th, and 8th graders! And now she’s given up 4 weeks of her summer, so these students can partake in opportunities they might not have otherwise. That’s a different breed. And I’m fortunate to know many other people at Prep and King-Chavez just like Ms. Moreno (shout out to my wife, hay-oo!).
So where does Alchemy fit in to this? Well, see how the kids are eating?
All of the food has been provided by Alchemy free of charge. Yes, you read that correctly. Alchemy has graciously and generously donated their time, their money, and their services to provide healthy, delicious, fresh meals to the Summer Conservation Academy students for the length of the program. Without making a cent.
This is another example of a different breed. A place like Alchemy doesn’t have to do anything for free. They’re a business. Not a charity. Not a non-profit. And yet . . . and yet . . . and yet I know of many instances where Alchemy operates as more than a restaurant. I know how Chef Ricardo Heredia works with many other local schools such as the Albert Einstein Academy and McKinley Elementary. How he looks to invest in the future while drawing on his own past regardless of whether it’s good for the restaurant’s Profit and Loss statement. I know of how people like Ron Troyano and Matt Thomas, owners of Alchemy, strive to keep raising expectations by establishing a non-profit, The Front Burner, that looks to provide insurance for the all-to-often uninsured back-of-the-house staff (you know, the people who plan and create and cook all that food we desire as well as the people who clean all of our filthy dishes once we’ve scarfed down that delicious food). I know when I approached Ron and Chef Ricardo about providing 25 meals for the Prep students, they didn’t smirk and look at me like I was crazy. They just took it upon themselves to help out. Because that’s the kind of people they are – a different breed, people willing to give back to the community even if it doesn’t show up in a cash register.
I’ll end on the perfect note. At the above lunch, the kids had fresh roast beef tortilla wraps, potato/green leaf lettuce salad, and oranges. Light, healthy, delicious, and the kids loved it. But I knew when they saw greens, they might be hesitant to eat. However, they’ve been instructed enough by me and Ms. Moreno to try everything once. Once they’d tried everything, they inhaled it all. And one young man summed it up best: “I thought this was gonna taste bad, but it was actually really, really good!” Another great learning experience.