At Mountain Oak School, meals are family-style — kids and adults sit together, relax, share stories and problems, experience teachable moments, and enjoy good food.
“This is the best food ever,” the kids say about Chef Mark’s cooking. Mark Matos runs a one-man show, doing all the planning, shopping, cooking and cleanup, then sitting down to a meal with the kids. Mark is a first-generation American with roots in the remote Azores Islands, over 800 miles west of Portugal. Mark’s parents kept their traditional culture alive with food. Gardening, raising meat, harvesting fruit, good cooking and sitting around the table were central to family life. After high school Mark set out to see America. He traveled and worked as a musician, dishwasher and cook, honing his craft.
In January Mark came to cook at Mountain Oak School, with a mission to educate the whole human — mind, body and spirit — with food. The school had received a snack-program grant for pre-K and kindergarten. Cooking from scratch and using local and/or organic ingredients, he turned ‘snack’ into a healthy, delicious and fulfilling lunch. Then in June the school received a generous grant from the Arizona Governor’s Office. Mark cooks breakfast and lunch for up to 90 people daily using local, organic, and flavorful whole foods. Meals are tied to school lessons by studying and appreciating other cultures and respecting differences.
The kids’ response? “Chef Mark, you’re the best cook ever! How do you make this? I want my mom to make it at home!” Mark’s secret? He takes recognizable dishes like lasagna and chili and makes them fresh from scratch, with better ingredients.
Mark is the chef and Jim Nolen is the visionary director of Mountain Oak School. He’s super-enthusiastic, explaining to me that this last summer the Arizona Governor’s Office grant enabled them to open their meal program to the community and invite parents, grandparents, and siblings to sit together, eat, and get enthusiastic over food. Sixty to eighty percent of participants weren’t Mountain Oak students, but because of the grant they didn’t have to charge a dime. Nolen explained, “Whether they are our students or not, we treat everyone with love and dignity. This program is the most important part of my job.” The current 2023-24 school-year meal program offers Chef Mark’s wonderful breakfasts and lunches on a sliding-scale basis to students and community members.
Mountain Oak is a Title 1 school, with sixty percent of its students living in homes with incomes below the poverty line. These two meals a day are sometimes all the food some of these kids get. Around the table, with a lovingly prepared, tasty and healthy meal, students feel more relaxed and accepted. The safe space, small-group dining and the caring, kind atmosphere helps school staff get to know students. Kids are more likely to open up and share their challenges. Nolen says that behavioral problems have become almost nonexistent since this program began.
Mountain Oak School sits on six acres with its own well. Director Nolen’s goal is to use this space to revive the school gardens and use them to teach science, technology, engineering and math. Nolan wants to add a community garden and grow more food. He wants to put the produce from these gardens in Chef Mark’s hands for feeding students and community, and add cooking classes, community festivals and celebrations.
Mountain Oak School gathers community around good food. I’m excited to join Mountain Oak School Director Jim Nolen, Chef Mark Makos, and the teachers, staff, students, families and community around the table to celebrate good food and see how it brings us together. Meanwhile, I’ll be cooking up Chef Mark’s extra special Sweet-Potato Chili. Try it out yourself!
Mountain Oak Sweet-Potato Chili
Recipe by Mark Matos and Suzanne Manhire
Serves 6
1 pound ground beef or pork, or mixture of the two
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder or paprika, to taste
1-2 teaspoons salt, to taste
3 cups of diced tomatoes, canned or fresh
1-1/2 cup chicken-bone broth
1 pound cubed sweet potatoes
Heat olive oil in a 3-quart saucepan or large skillet. Add onions and garlic, and sauté till transparent. Add ground beef/pork and cook, stirring constantly, till browned. Add chili powder/paprika and salt, and stir in. Add tomatoes, bone broth and sweet potatoes. Cover and cook gently till sweet potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with chopped avocado, shredded jack or cheddar cheese, and/or sour cream.
Chef Molly Beverly is Prescott's leading creative food activist and teacher. Photos by Gary Beverly.
