IN THE CLASSROOM -- In thanks to St. Joseph

Danette Goulet

The air was thick with garlic bread and chicken.

Children tore the food apart with their hands and tossed it toward

two, huge metal bowls set in the center of the table.

Quite a sight when 31 youngsters are all sending food flying in

frantic arcs at the same time.

It was reminiscent of the Swedish chef from the Muppet Show.

But not only was the food free-for-all just students following

directions, it was also for a good cause.

Joan Ricketts’ fifth-grade class from St. Joachim’s Elementary School

in Costa Mesa was invited Monday to Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant in

Costa Mesa to help executive chef George Poston create a feast for the

homeless.

It was a celebration of St. Joseph’s Day, which, Poston explained,

originated in Southern Italy.

During a severe draught, Sicilians prayed to St. Joseph for rain,

promising that if the rain came, they would feed the poor. When the rain

began, Sicilians made a feast for the poor -- a tradition Sicilians have

kept up through the years, Poston said.

With the help of Poston and sous chef Julio Hawkins, students prepared

gnocchi and a Tuscan bread salad, a traditional Sicilian meal to be

picked up later that day by the Second Harvest Food Bank and distributed

to those in need.

So in their best white Oxford shirts, uniform ties and starched blue

pants and skirts, students rolled pasta dough out into snake shapes, cut

it into pieces and made gnocchi.

“That looks like a snake that ate a mouse,” Poston told Ashleigh

Allione, 10, as he helped her make the gnocchi.

Next came the tearing up of large loafs of garlic bread to go in the

salad.

Scott Johnson, 11, dug into the project with relish. But something was

odd -- he seemed to be leaving the edges of the loaf intact.

“I don’t usually eat the crusts,” he explained with a shrug.

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

writer Danette Goulet visits a campus and writes about her experience.