Page 26 - FIS World December 2020

A Recipe for Success
Alumna Catherine Prisco’s catering company finds a place at FISW
FIS alumna Catherine Prisco has returned
to school, this time as FISW’s caterer
At the age of 11, Catherine Prisco read a book that changed her life. The science fiction novel The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key, loved by Grade 5 students around the world, led her to question just how she wanted to live her life on this planet. From that day on, Catherine became a vegetarian, an action that has guided and influenced her life ever since.
Nutrition and eating healthy are not just a lifestyle choice for Catherine, they are her life. From studying nutrition at Stony Brook University in New York, to buying a health food store in Kelkheim, Germany in 1992, she realized she was doing something crucial, not only for her children in providing them pesticide- and hormone-free foods, but for the planet, too. Inspired by her love of cooking and the knowledge that no other caterers were delivering freshly cooked organic meals to local kindergarten and school children, she bravely set up a catering company, Cali’s Catering, in Hofheim in 2010. Her instinct proved spot on as she currently delivers approximately 5,000 freshly cooked organic meals a day.
I love my job, I love doing what I’m doing and I hope I can make a tiny impact in regards to making the world a better place.
As a fully certified organic caterer, she and her 40 person staff support local farmers and food suppliers wherever possible, as long as they are pesticide and chemical free. In addition to sourcing local organic produce, she champions short transport routes and
low carbon footprints. Even the electricity used by her catering company is renewable, as well as using only biodegradable and recycled packaging and cleaning products.
Not everyone can call their catering company 100% organic. Certification by Abcert, an organization that monitors companies to determine if they meet all of the criteria required to officially call themselves organic, is hard won. With four unannounced and time-intensive visits a year, Abcert routinely reviews Cali’s invoices, storage areas, refrigerators and stock.
But for Catherine it is worth it. Cooking healthy lunches with fresh ingredients for the FIS Wiesbaden campus and her other local “little” clients is what she loves. A large part of her week is spent making up menus and assessing feedback all with the aim of serving healthy meals that children enjoy eating. As Catherine says, ”I love my job, I love doing what I’m doing and I hope I can make a tiny impact in re- gards to making the world a better place.”
The learning for Catherine never stops and that love of learning she credits to her time at FIS. “FIS taught me to love to learn. I had excellent teachers and the level of education and the classes I could choose from helped me to really enjoy learning. That has really stayed with me.”
That has been, as we can see, the recipe for success for Cali’s Catering!
Hilary Polomsky
Development & Alumni Relations Manager
24 FIS World December 2020