West Fannin Elementary School and the Lit’l Pond Hospitality Group

West Fannin Elementary School and the Lit’l Pond Hospitality Group have developed a new and exciting partnership.  Lit’l Pond Hospitality Group, owned and led by Ms. Michelle Moran and Mr. Danny Mellman, is in charge of the following family of restaurants in Fannin County:  Harvest on Main, Masseria Kitchen, The Cook’s Farm, La Pizzeria, Cucina Rustica, and Blue Smoke Barbeque.  With the guidance of Mrs. Mary Jean Pace, the fourth grade students and Garden Club students at West Fannin have grown, are currently growing, and will continue to grow specialty crops that the Lit’l Pond Hospitality Group will use in its restaurants for certain menu items.  To begin this wonderful partnership, the students grew tomatoes and butternut squash that Melisa Gardner, the kitchen manager at Masseria Kitchen, used over the weekend of September 27th through September 29th to help create two specials called Autumn Pizza and Tomato-Pesto Pasta.  The students will be growing and harvesting many more specialty crops in the near and distant future in order to expand this partnership.  In addition, Michelle, Danny, kitchen managers, and chefs from the restaurants will be visiting West Fannin Elementary to work with the students on recipe development and the cooking process.  We are very thankful at West Fannin to have dedicated partners like the Lit’l Pond Hospitality Group that have a positive impact on our students and are willing to assist in providing our students with a well-rounded education.