By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – If the feedback from the school’s football players is any indication, Kingwood Christian School’s new culinary class has already had a noticeable impact on campus.

“Before, someone would go to Subway or Chick-Fil-A to pick up meals for the football players before games,” KCS Principal Ruth Gray said during a Sept. 3 interview. “But now, our culinary students are cooking for them. It’s healthy and hot, and it’s exactly what they want.”

The team had only played one game before Sept. 3, but the rave reviews were already coming in from the football players after the culinary students prepared a massive batch of spaghetti for them before their Aug. 28 game.

“They love it,” KCS Athletic Director Eddie Toles said of the football players. “The culinary students are really making some good food.”

Can the school’s roughly 35-member Lion football team put away some food?

“Oh yeah,” culinary arts student Lauren Durrett said with a laugh.

The culinary arts class is a new addition to KCS this year thanks to the arrival of local caterer and Kingwood teacher Kyra Moncrief.

“She came to the school this summer to pitch the idea, and she’s really taken it and run with it,” Gray said. “The kids love it, and the teachers love it.”

During the first few weeks of school, the culinary arts students have learned everything from proper use of a knife to scaling recipes to feed larger or smaller groups of people.

“They get the real-world experience of modifying a recipe for four people to feed a group of 40 people, and modifying a recipe for 40 people to feed four people,” Moncrief said, noting one of the class’s goals is to introduce students to new and healthier foods.

The class, which currently has more boys enrolled than girls, is planning to take field trips to the Southern Living test kitchens and to local farmers’ markets.

When Durrett and her classmate, Josh Dodson, heard the class would be offered, they didn’t hesitate to enroll.

“I like to try new things, and I was really interested in the class,” Durrett said.

In only a few weeks, Dodson has “become a lot more comfortable with a knife,” and has even helped to prepare meals for his family. His favorite recipe, by far, is chicken parmesan.

“When I move out, I don’t want to have to eat fast food every day,” Dodson said.