Red Hook lunches will be all NY all November, highlighted by CIA menu, 'Pizza Palooza' creativity

Two days after a holiday known for its sugary sweets and treats, Red Hook students will begin a month in which New York-sourced fruits, vegetables and proteins will be on their lunch tray every day.

For the third consecutive year, everything on district lunch menus throughout the month of November will be sourced from producers based in our state, with several directly in the Hudson Valley. This year’s edition of New York November is not only highlighted by a full Thanksgiving meal, but also a day in which students from the Culinary Institute of America have "taken over" the menu and will prepare the food.

Red Hook’s November initiative is an outgrowth of the state Education Department’s Farm-to-School program, which incentivizes schools to have at least 30% of its lunch menu throughout the entire year consist of New York-sourced items. Red Hook regularly surpasses that number by a significant margin through the careful planning of Food Services Director Sam Pride, and New York November aids in meeting that mark.

Some of this year’s highlights include pulled pork sandwiches and baked beans on Nov. 19 – the first time the staff will roast their own pork butts in the schools – and each Friday will be “New York Pizza Palooza,” a new idea enacted recently in which kitchen staff creatively tops pizza with ingredients leftover from previous recipes that would otherwise go to waste.

“It’s a ‘Pizza Friday’ with an eye toward minimizing food waste,” Pride said. “We utilize what we have, on-hand, in a kitchen-commando kind of way to create inventive, fun new pizzas and engage the students. We’ve had such creations as pickle-bacon-ranch pizza. It crushed.”

Tuesday, Nov. 24, is when Red Hook is planning to serve its Thanksgiving meal, with turkey, garlic smashed potatoes and cherry crisp.

The menu for Thursday, Nov. 5 is still to be announced. That’s because it’s been left up to the Culinary Institute students who were shadowing and assisting Red Hook’s kitchen staff last month, as part of the school’s ongoing relationship with the Hyde Park institution. The students were tasked with developing recipes that would not only meet state requirements for school meals, but also showcase their skills and the New York-based products.

The month is just the latest example of how Red Hook has focused the importance of healthy eating and a farm-to-table mindset, which has only increased since Pride joined the district in fall 2025. Last year, the district hosted a “Farm to School Showcase” as part of the annual Budget Expo, which featured roughly a dozen tables of local farmers and vendors of school foods providing samples and discussing their products. And, Pride has actively utilized elements grown in school gardens, emphasizing to students the importance of knowing where their food comes from.