Standing room only at BTHS Thanksgiving feast

ERIC SUCAR staff

Brick Township High School culinary arts students dish up some Thanksgiving dinner for the staff on Nov. 19. Teacher Stacey Vetrini and her classes prepared the meals from donations and served close to 300 people. ERIC SUCAR staff BRICK TOWNSHIP — Thanksgiving came early to Brick Township High School recently, as the smell of roast turkey wafted through the halls.

Staff and supervisors stood in line to wait for a seat at the feast prepared by culinary arts teacher Stacy Vetrini and her students.

"It was like a restaurant," Principal Dennis Filippone said. "You had to wait for a seat. I even had to wait for a seat. The superintendent had to wait for a seat. She fed over 300 adults, including me, very well.

The menu on Nov. 19 featured roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean salad, pumpkin soup, a variety of breads, corn, raisin, and cheddar cheese muffins, and a table laden with desserts.

"Apple pie, pumpkin pie, apple crisp, you name it, anything you wanted," said Filippone, who made sure he got a seat.

Vetrini and the students in her culinary arts classes spent the better part of a month preparing for the big day, cooking portions of the meal, then freezing it.

"She's been cooking the turkeys and the stuffing all along," Filippone said. "She had it all frozen. And when she unfreezes it, it's like she made it that day. She used to be the chef at the Manasquan River Country Club."

Vetrini had an assembly line of students heating food, serving food and cutting up the turkeys, he said.

"It was amazing," Filippone said. "Usually it's very good, but this year it was amazing, the volume of food, the quality of food, the number of people she served."

All of the food, including roughly 20 turkeys, was donated.

"The only thing it cost the district was the cost for the utilities," Filippone said. "She had one turkey breast left when it was all done, and an apple pie she gave me. I have it sitting right in front of me."

Vetrini and the students also cooked and froze some Thanksgiving dinners for needy area families, he said.

"She is really just marvelous," he said. "She was able to do it working in a culinary arts lab that's probably 35 years old, with outdated equipment. It was absolutely marvelous."