Submitted by Lopez School

This Thursday, Oct. 5, a special Evening Meals at School will feature multiple celebrations.

One will be the community grand opening and tour of the newly renovated Lopez School. Another will be the showing of a photo essay created by Heather and Robert Harrison documenting the renovation project and the people who made it happen over the course of the past two years.

And at the heart of it all, the Lopez Locavores are featuring a true ‘Seed-to-Table’ dinner celebrating crops specifically grown for this meal from seeds saved by Lopez farmers and exclusive to our Lopez Island. Moreover the meal will feature a dessert prepared in conjunction with Lopez school culinary students utilizing apples gleaned from around Lopez.

The Lopez community who has supported and so generously funded the school renovation project is warmly invited to participate in this event.

School renovation tours will begin at 4:30 p.m. Plan to come to the elementary school entry on School Road (marked now by our 115 year old school bell). The Seed-to-Table meal will start to be served at 5:30 p.m. (if you are planning to eat, please come earlier-than-late as food is available for up to 250 diners). The photo essay and a short presentation of thanks will begin at 6 p.m.

Many organizations have contributed to make this meal and community grand opening possible.

The Lopez Locavores will be preparing the meal with help from Lopez school culinary students. For 10 years now the Locavores have been keeping evening meals “real” and through that have introduced many Lopezians to how delicious organic, locally produced food can be.

This time around with the leadership efforts of Horsedrawn Farm’s Ken Akopiantz, a grant from Clif Bars, and participation by numerous Lopez farmers, this special Seed-to-Table dinner will be featured. In addition, the Family Resource Center’s gleaning project will be providing the apples used in the evening’s dessert.

Grants from the school renovation architects, TCF Architecture, and the renovation project managers, The Robinson Company, have funded Robert and Heather’s photo essay. Several generous local donors have funded pictures and gifts to be presented.

Planning for the Lopez school renovation project began eight years ago. It has been a long journey and much has been accomplished.

The construction work extended across two summers and a school year. Two thirds of the work is behind walls or under the ground with new septic, plumbing, seismic, heating and ventilation, communication, and electrical systems added, replaced, or renovated. New high efficiency LED lighting was added in many parts of the school. In particular, the gym now has a state-of-the-art high-bay LED lighting system that is both saving energy and more fully illuminating that space.

The school kitchen was expanded and completely renovated. A food production teaching classroom added and the multipurpose room renovated. The elementary building flat roof was replaced and the shingle exterior of the building cleaned, repaired, and painted. Upgrades and repairs to our Decatur schoolhouse were made as well.

The Lopez community is invited to come and see all of these improvements, celebrate the completion of the renovation project, and accept the school district’s ongoing appreciation for your support.