 Hello, I'm Chef Jim Birmingham of New England Culinary Institute. I have taught at Necky for nine years now and over the course of that nine years I have taught in many different classes. One element that is common throughout those classes is Necky's focus on sustainability. This focus on sustainability plays an important role in almost all of our classes. We can think of the French classic cuisine class and the focus on seasonal local ingredients. We can think of the meat fabrication class and the whole animal butchery that our students are taught that allows them to work with the fresh locally raised meats that are so important to sustainability. One class that I have taught many times over the last years is service learning. Our service learning class provides really classic examples of some of the efforts that Necky has made towards sustainability. One great example is the new school cuisine cookbook which we tested the recipes for with our service learning class. The cookbook was an effort to create recipes for school food service workers that would allow them to work with the fresh wholesome seasonal ingredients that are being brought into their kitchens. It's these connections that we make with our students between sustainability and the elements of ethics, ecology and economics that go along with them and using those ideas to help further the cause of sustainability beyond the walls of Necky's classrooms by taking these ideas on the road and working with community partners who can benefit from your knowledge and experience that we have from teaching sustainability over the course of so many years.