St. Lawrence offers many opportunities for its students to give back to the community, and one of these opportunities has just started up again for the semester. The Deep Root Breakfast Club is a volunteer effort led by Thelmo’s Canton Community Outreach Committee to serve breakfast to elementary, middle and high school students at the local Deep Root Center.
Deep Root, which describes itself as a “Center for Self-Directed Learning,” is located on Riverside Drive in Canton. Deep Root offers an alternative learning style, including outdoor days, in which students spend the day in nature learning hands-on lessons, and customized learning plans. Some students were always drawn to alternative learning styles, while others tried traditional schools before finding out that it did not fit well with their methods of learning.
Deep Root provides these kids an opportunity to follow their interests. “These kids come here: they’ve often been in school, and it hasn’t worked out for some reason,” explains Executive Director Maria Corse. “They come here, and they follow their interests: they do the things they like and that are interesting to them because if you are interested in something you are going to learn.”
However, students who attend Deep Root do not always have access to a healthy and nutritious breakfast, and Deep Root does not have the resources to provide it to them.
This is where the club comes in, cooking and serving breakfast to the kids as they arrive on Tuesday mornings.
Last week, they served scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and a fruit salad, and then talked with and got to know the kids for 30 minutes before returning to campus.
The club has been active now for several semesters and works with Volunteer Services and Thelmo. Former Chair of the Canton Community Outreach Committee Placido Ramallo ’21 believes that the club has a strong impact on the kids’ education.
“It’s especially significant because in an alternative learning center, the kids don’t have the heavy-handed incentives that you have in a typical education, so the breakfast provides one more thing that they have to look forward to and one more incentive to show up to school,” Ramallo explained.
A 2005 study in the scientific journal Physiology and Behavior showed the benefits of eating a healthy breakfast before school.
According to the study, breakfast improves short-term memory and attention and is also linked to attendance.
The Deep Root Breakfast Club heads to the center at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday mornings to prepare food and returns to campus by 9:30 a.m. after cleaning up and hanging out with the kids.
“The club ensures that all kids get to have a nutritious and wholesome start to the day,” Ramallo says. Volunteers are always welcome, and can get involved by emailing cfdenh17@stlawu.edu.