Sunny Side Up: NewBrook’s Farm & Field Day Delights

The sky was blue and spirits were high at NewBrook Elementary’s annual Farm & Field Day: a joyful celebration of hands-on learning, community connection, and all things Farm to School. Students roared through a vibrant rotation of activities in multi-age teams proudly named Kale, Squash, Carrot, and more.

Each station offered a new way to explore the natural world.

Students raced to sort compost, recycling, and trash in a waste relay with Alex from Windham Solid Waste. Chris guided curious eyes through the many treasures to be foraged and found in the forest, including cool skulls and mushrooms.

Tails wagged and hearts melted as Cindy from Monadnock Therapy Pets introduced students to a friendly therapy dog. Students also met rabbits and their farmers, Seren, Rick, and Cedar of Giant Journey Farm, and learned what it takes to raise animals with care.

Nearby, Shiloh led fiber arts activities and brought along a lovable goat named Vax, who quickly became a crowd favorite. Kids crafted their own environmental pins with Suzanne and Lucia Paugh, pedaled their way to fresh smoothies on the bike blender, and baked up fun in the school’s pizza oven.

At the Harvest of the Month tasting table, hosted by Food Connects, deviled eggs took center stage in celebration of eggs as May’s highlighted crop.

“Cheese” group visits Harvest of the Month table.

Kids eagerly lined up, half for the chance to build their own deviled eggs, half excited to share everything they’d learned about birds, eggs, and even ostriches.

They could hardly contain their excitement, and when it came time for questions, hands shot up:

“Can I eat a robin’s egg?”
“I know how to poach an egg!”
“Sunny side is my favorite!”

But probably the most asked question was:
“Can I have another one?”

One student even asked for a handful of chives, and happily munched them like candy while waiting his turn to crush eggshells for compost, the follow-up activity that demonstrated how to make your own calcium additive for the garden.

At its heart, Farm & Field Day is a celebration of connection. 

It brings together students, families, farmers, educators, and community members to highlight how farm to school programming touches every part of our lives, from the food on our plates to the ecosystems around us.

Devan Monette and Amy Duffy, Newbrook Garden Coordinator

With the sun shining down on us, nothing was more clearly illuminated than the power of food to bring a community together. Whether it’s sharing a slice of wood-fired pizza, learning about the animals that call our neighborhood farms home, or laughing over the smear of yolk on a smiling kid’s nose as they scarf down a deviled egg, food has the power to teach, to heal, and to connect.

NewBrook Elementary celebrates the end of Farm and Field Day by singing the Vermont state song with Principal Scotty Tabachnick.

And at schools like NewBrook, where students get the chance to grow it, cook it, and share it with their classmates, families, and the greater community throughout the year, we witness the kind of education that sticks. It’s the kind of learning that builds confidence, encourages curiosity, and plants the seeds of lifelong wellness.

by Devan Monette

From Lemurs to Leafy Greens, Welcome Tobi Buchman to Oak Grove School

As the heartwarming Pixar film Up reminds us, 'Adventure is out there!', and thanks to new Garden Coordinator Tobi Buchman, it’s coming to the students of Oak Grove Elementary School.

Tobi’s path to Oak Grove School has been anything but conventional. From sailing the Pacific Ocean as a ship's cook to studying lemurs in Madagascar, their life has been filled with wild, wonderful adventures. Now, as Oak Grove School’s new Garden Coordinator, they’re bringing that same sense of curiosity, joy, and spontaneity to the soil.

Tobi looking at newly sprouted plants in the Oak Grove raised beds.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to work with animals.” That desire stuck all the way through college and came up in an unexpected conversation with the university president that led to a surprising opportunity. “He asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to work with lemurs, maybe in a zoo or in the wild. And he just casually goes, ‘Oh, like my friend Jack Hanna?’” Tobi recalls. “I literally chased him down after class and was like, ‘Wait, do you actually know Jack Hanna?’” A few emails later, Tobi was invited to the Columbus Zoo to meet a childhood hero. 

Post-graduation, their childhood dream became reality when they did fieldwork studying lemurs in Madagascar, tagged fish in the Florida Keys, and spent years aboard educational tall ships: floating classrooms where college students learned about science, navigation, and life at sea.

Today, Tobi is planting more literal roots here in Vermont.

“This is the first time I’ve really felt like I want to get settled somewhere. The garden here is the perfect place to do that. It’s hands-on, creative, and the kids kind of run the show. I love it.”

Tobi sees the garden not just as a space for growing vegetables, but as a living laboratory and playground. Whether it’s cooking spinach with students for taste tests, experimenting with dehydrators to create plant-based pigments for art projects, or planting on the fly with kids racing the clock, every day in the garden is filled with learning and laughter.

One of Tobi’s favorite parts of the garden right now is the Mystery Bulb Bed, an unknown mix of transplanted bulbs inherited from last year’s garden. Instead of tossing them out, Tobi gave them a new home and a name.

“I just started calling it the Mystery Bulb Bed because I had no idea what was going to come up. It could be garlic, onions, flowers, who knows? I think it’s hilarious, and the kids love the surprise. It’s the perfect metaphor for this job: we plant, we wait, and we see what grows.”

Tobi and the “Mystery Bulb Bed”.

From mung beans to mystery bulbs, adorable zucchini leaves to sunflowers that sprouted indoors but not out, the garden under Tobi’s care is a place of delight, discovery, and a little bit of chaos, just the way they like it.

Tobi put it best: “When I was a kid, I just didn’t hear that it was okay to try things and see what would happen, without worrying about messing up. Maybe it wasn’t missing, maybe I just didn’t hear it. But I was always so focused on making sure nothing went wrong. Now, with this job, it’s kind of like my mission to get messy.”

Even though the school year may be drawing to a close, Tobi is excited to deepen the garden’s role in the Oak Grove community. With activities inspired by Harvest of the Month programming they look forward to bringing more science, cooking, and art to students, along with a healthy dose of fun. Whether they’re leading a lesson on plant identification, cooking up scrambled eggs with fresh spinach, or letting kids vote on the cutest leaf, Tobi’s approach is rooted in joy, curiosity, and letting things grow wild.

Written by Elyse Morckel

When Students Become Teachers: A Take-Home Lesson in Nourishment at Academy School

Teaching aims to equip children with the life skills they need to lead successful, healthy, and fulfilling lives. It does this by showing them how; giving them opportunities to practice; and—perhaps most powerfully—inviting them to share what they’ve learned with others.

Often, the most impactful learning happens in this last step, when students step into the role of teacher themselves.

That’s what made a recent project at Academy School so special.

Thanks to a Community Schools Foundation Grant from the Vermont Agency of Education, Lisa Nichols of the Brattleboro Food Co-op, with support from the Food Connects Farm to School team, launched an innovative take-home cooking kit project this spring.

Each student received a packed lunch cooler filled with fresh ingredients and a simple, multilingual recipe—everything they needed to be the chef for their family. The first round featured fruit and cheese skewers, led by Academy's youngest learners. It gave students the chance not only to prepare a healthy snack but to nourish their families and build confidence in the kitchen.

Within each kit contained all the ingredients to create an enriching experience for families– local Cabot cheese, fresh blueberries, apples and oranges all created a window for students to share a little of what they learn in the rich Farm to School programming happening at Academy. More importantly, they provided a hands-on opportunity for students to take the lead, experience food in an empowering way, and develop a deeper sense of ownership over their choices.

At its core, Farm to School is about sparking curiosity and creating space for meaningful exploration in the choices we make around food and the community. When students are invited to cook, taste, test, and share, they build real-world skills and find joy in the process—learning what they like, what they don’t, and what it feels like to care for others through food.

These are some of the strongest motivators of learning because they ignite the passion within the student that draws them to the experiences that best resonate with them.

Cooking with your family is just one example of the many ways Farm to School programming hopes to make this type of real, meaningful learning possible—and Food Connects couldn’t have been prouder to help make it happen.

By Devan Monette

Connecting EL Education & Farm to School

Schools throughout Windham County are implementing a new language arts curriculum called EL Education. At Food Connects, we’re looking for ways to support local educators in linking this curriculum with hands-on food, farm, and nutrition experiences in the garden, classroom and cafeteria. 

What is EL Education?

EL, or Expeditionary Learning, is a language arts-focused curriculum that intersects with other subject areas like science and social studies. It provides a great opportunity to link with current Farm to School (FTS) programming because it, “emphasizes hands-on, experiential learning and the integration of academic content with real-world experiences.”

EL is the curriculum currently being used in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU), Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU), and West River Education District (WRED). From K-8th grade, there are four modules per grade. At the high school level, EL starts with a guiding question, and there are several components, including: classroom expeditions, experts, fieldwork, community engagement, Intensives (3-4 days that are not curricular and are focused on team building), and an authentic product at the end.

How are teachers integrating FTS with EL?

Whether it’s 2nd graders at Academy School reading about India and then working together to make vegetable tikki masala, 3rd graders at Grafton Elementary School learning about overcoming learning challenges and experimenting with seed saving while reading the book Zoe and the Seed Garden, 8th graders at Dummerston School using the EL anchor text The Omnivore’s Dilemma to launch a study the local food system including visits to Bunker Farm and Walker Farm, or high schoolers at Leland and Gray participating in a maple sugaring intensive co-led by Devan Monnette of Food Connects, there are many ways that FTS can enrich the EL curriculum. 

There are even opportunities to link these EL modules to the Big Ideas of Farm to School. Recently, Food Connects facilitated a community of practice group discussion for FTS focused educators in WSESU, WNESU, and WRED interested in digging deeper into the connections between EL and FTS, and Oak Grove School recently worked with Food Connects and Shelburne Farms to create a professional development workshop focused on strengthening the connections between FTS and EL.

How can FTS support EL?

Schools with active FTS programs are well-positioned to integrate with the EL curriculum, because FTS education, with its emphasis on gardening and cooking with students and connecting students to local farms, is inherently experiential, hands-on, and connected to real world experiences. Contact us for more information on making connections like this at your school.

 https://eleducation.org/core-practices

Written by Sheila Humphreys

Sprout Kits Pop Up in Classrooms Across Vermont

Teachers returning from April Break found a special delivery at their doorsteps: Sprout Kits! These kits contain a bucket of soil, seeds, tin trays, and instructions for sprouting your own edible pea and sunflower shoots.

Check out what teachers across Vermont are saying, along with some fun photos!

“The Kindergartners in my class LOVED using the sprouting kits. It really brought to life our science study of living vs. nonliving things, and it was a tasty snack that was enjoyed by all. Thank you Food Connects!”

- Amelia Fontein, Kindergarten Teacher, Academy School

“These photos are from Union Street School, Springfield's garden club. The students loved their sprout kits. I heard lots of exclamations of, "They are growing!!!!". I included a picture of our courtyard where we also have garden beds that we are working on. Thanks for the lovely opportunity.”

-Jan Rounds, School Counselor, Union Street School 

“We enjoyed planting our seeds today--we are turning them into gifts for Mother's Day, and the kids couldn't have been more excited to plant their seeds, pat down the dirt, and are ready to watch the seeds grow!”

-Jennifer Dodge, 2nd Grade Teacher, Elm Hill School

Elm Hill Sprout Kits

We were able to offer these kits for free thanks to the generosity of several local businesses. Browne & Roberts Ace Hardware, Coast of Maine, and Blue Seal donated soil, while Tito’s contributed 2,000 takeout trays—and, yes, that’s why the kits might remind you of burritos! New Chapter’s generous donation helped cover the cost of supplies that weren’t donated, like seeds.

A huge thank you to Retreat Farm for letting us use their space to assemble the kits, and an extra shoutout to Retreat Farm staff members Laura and Amy for jumping in to help put them together. This community project was only possible because of the amazing support from our local partners.

Rethinking Education: Youth Empowerment and the Future of Learning

Earlier this month, Harvest of the Month hosted a vibrant webinar exploring Youth Empowerment in Education. While it’s clear that significant hurdles remain in creating equitable ways to elevate student voice, the conversation ended with inspiring hopes for the future. A group of students, teachers, and educational partners came together to identify clear steps toward progress — and that alone is something to celebrate.

Watch for yourself, especially to hear directly from the students from Leland and Gray High School who joined in the conversation. In the meantime, here’s a brief overview of the ideas explored.

Kicking Off: What Type of Learner Are You?

Starting with a simple but powerful question — one that deserves space in every educational setting: What type of learner are you?

This prompt surfaced a critical insight right away: classrooms are filled with diverse learning styles, yet most lessons are delivered in just one or two formats.

But that was just the beginning. A deeper question quickly emerged:
How can we help students understand how they learn, so they can take greater ownership of what they learn?

A Brief History: Voice in Education

At around the 11-minute mark, the group stepped back in time to explore the roots of student voice in American education.

How early educational reformers like John Dewey championed freedom of speech and experiential learning, and also how industrial-era educational models prioritize efficiency over individuality — viewing students as "human capital" and, in doing so, sidelining authentic learning experiences.

Zooming in on Vermont, historically the state has demonstrated progress through local alternative schools and how initiatives like Personalized Learning Plans and Flexible Pathways continue that work today, yet there is still much work to be done.

Student Voices: Interest vs. Checking the Boxes

At the 23-minute mark, the students speak for themselves.

Their message was clear: they crave learning that sparks genuine interest. But many feel that mandatory classes often exist just to check off graduation requirements.

This raised some big, timely questions:

  • How can we balance preparing students for life’s challenges with allowing space for their interests to guide the way?

  • How can we offer more opportunities for deep learning in areas students are truly passionate about?

  • And what does an education look like when interest drives the path, rather than just fulfilling requirements?

Purpose, Passion, and Empowerment

Naturally, this raised the question: How do we promote this sense of purpose in our students without overburdening our already dedicated, hardworking teachers?

At around the 32-minute mark, the group explored how empowerment might actually ease the load for educators in many respects. Empowered students tend to be more engaged, motivated, and self-directed — meaning there’s less pushing and pulling required from teachers.

Leland and Gray as an example utilizes project based learning throughout the year, taking students out of the classroom to learn from experts within a range of topics. The highschool even spearheaded a program titled Journey Away in which students last year traveled abroad to Vietnam, France and the southern U.S. studying cuisine and culture along the way. 

On a more simple scale this could be as accessible as utilizing resources like the Maine Climate Hub and allowing students to research and explore topics that they find interesting with real world practical applications. When students are given meaningful choices, they begin to discover the joy of exploration and the power of ownership.

As one student panelist wisely pointed out, learning what you don’t want to do is just as valuable as discovering what you do want to do. Offering choice invites students to step out of their comfort zones — and in doing so, to embrace mistakes as a vital part of growth.

Setting the Tone for Empowerment

By the 44-minute mark, the conversation turned to the classroom environment itself.

Teachers reflected on the power of flipping the dynamic by asking students, “What do you want to do?” rather than dictating every step.

The themes that emerged — building ongoing relationships, leaving room for growth, and redefining success — were central to our dialogue. Rather than focusing solely on final products or grades, we explored the importance of valuing the learning journey itself.

Farm to School: A Catalyst for Choice

Although time was short, Farm to School programming came forward as a powerful vehicle for empowered learning.

With its emphasis on hands-on, land-based experiences, Farm to School curriculum consistently invites students to try new things — whether it's tasting a new food, participating in a new activity, or rethinking the food systems we depend on.

By employing the time-tested models that Farm to School is built upon, we create opportunities for students to learn side-by-side with community experts. These real-world experiences help build practical life skills and empower students to step into the world as informed, thoughtful citizens — with their communities at the heart of their actions.

And so, we circle back to our original question: How do we learn best?

While every learner differs in how they absorb information, our discussion pointed toward one overarching approach: purpose-driven learning.

When lessons are rooted in meaning and connection, students are naturally driven to ask, “How can I contribute?”

Then learning serves a greater purpose — beyond just earning a letter grade — it extends beyond the bell, and the potential for growth becomes limitless.

Written by Devan Monette

Photos feature Leland and Gray students at the 2024 FEAST conference.

Special thanks to Shelburne Farms and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s Food and Markets Vision grant for making Harvest of the Month work possible. If you are interested in learning more about hands-on, land-based educational practices, see the Shelburne Farms professional learning and resources for educators. 

Curious to hear students speak on this firsthand? Scroll back to the top and watch the video!

Hands Off: Speaking Out in Support of Local Food

The thriving national movement to provide locally-sourced, nutrient-dense food to children has taken a terrible hit due to federal government cuts issued this past month.  In March, the USDA cancelled over $1 billion, $670 million dollars supporting local food, farmers and childhood nutrition. 

Speaking at the Hands-Off! Rally on the Brattleboro Commons on April 5th, Food Connects Interim Director Lee Halpern described the impact: 

“That’s $1 billion in funding to help food banks and food hubs distribute local foods to low income consumers through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement; $660 million to ensure local foods are in school cafeterias through Local Food for Schools and Child Care; and, $10 million to connect kids to local foods and farms through the Patrick Leahy Farm to School grant.” 

All three programs were cancelled. 

To understand the state and local impact of these cuts, cancelling Local Food for Schools and Child Care eliminated $1.2 million in federal grant funding destined to purchase local foods for Vermont schools. Fourteen schools in Windham County used this grant in the 2023-24 school year to bolster school meal programs, support local farmers, and stimulate Vermont’s rural economy.

A 2016 UVM study at the Center for Rural Studies demonstrated that for every dollar spent on local foods, $1.60 goes back into Vermont’s economy. As Halpern summarized, “Now that’s a pretty efficient return. If these cuts were really about efficiency, DOGE got their math wrong.” 

Food Connects has joined its voice with the state and national movement to fight for these programs that prioritize children’s health, build resilience in local agriculture, and strengthen the regional economy. 

For more information and to contribute your voice as well, see the March 25th The Commons article and calls to action from the National Farm to School Network. 

Reshare NFSN’s social media posts: Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Facebook.

Written by Kris Nelson

Tapping Into Motivation: Why Farm to School Works

Engaging high school students isn’t easy—especially when it comes to encouraging them to try new things or engage with hands-on learning.

But with climate change accelerating and global supply chains growing increasingly vulnerable, traditional skills like food production and land-based knowledge are more vital than ever.

That’s why, in the first week of March, Leland and Gray offered a three-day, project-based intensive course centered on maple syrup production.

We called the course Boiling Point: A Maple Mastery—an immersion experience hosted at the Rafters Lodge in Jamaica, Vermont by the Hazelton Family.

With perfect sugaring weather, students got to fully immerse themselves in each step of the process, gaining hands-on experience and a deep appreciation for the effort that goes into producing maple syrup.

Six students attended the course under the leadership of Drew Hazelton, Jenna Webb, Steve Ovenden, and myself.

Leading up to the event, I wasn’t sure how students would react to being off-grid or taking on the demanding tasks involved in collecting sap and turning it into syrup. But by the end, I realized just how motivating maple syrup could be. 

But enjoying maple syrup was only a byproduct of the course. In actuality, it was the students who rose to the occasion—proving just how impactful hands-on, land-based learning can be.

Braving the rain and trekking through steep hills covered in knee-deep snow, every student dug deep and made the most of the experience.

As one student reflected, "I feel that programs like this can trigger layers of inspiration... in future jobs or through art. It creates a new atmosphere which creates new brilliant ideas."

This quote gets to the heart of why Farm to School programming matters.

By stepping outside the classroom and away from traditional learning models, immersive experiences open endless pathways for students to discover inspiration.

In turn, inspiration fuels motivation, and motivation drives learning.

For me, the most rewarding part of this experience was stepping back and watching that learning unfold—independent of instruction.

Whether it’s learning how to identify trees, recognizing the unique traits that characterize each species, or uncovering the rich history each one holds—the forest will always be the best teacher.

As we helped make syrup come to life through evaporation, hard work and patience were at the top of the curriculum in lessons learned.


In the end, we couldn’t have asked for a more well-rounded experience.

The weather cooperated fully, allowing students to engage deeply in every step of the process and walk away with a newfound appreciation for the syrup on their plate the next time they dig into a stack of pancakes.

As one student put it, "It teaches them to respect the hard work that goes into making products—also, it teaches them the old ways."

In the end, it seems this is what the students were most hungry for:

An opportunity to independently discover what it means to have a hand in producing their own food.

To step beyond the confines of the classroom and absorb lessons at their own pace.

And a chance to join the ranks of countless Vermonters before them in the sacred practice of making maple syrup.

Written by Devan Monette

Want to see the students in action? Watch this short video and feel free to like and share!

Expanding Trauma-Informed Trainings Across Vermont

Since 2019, Farm to School lead coach Sheila Humphreys has been offering workshops on Trauma-Informed Approaches to Farm to School to schools in WSESU and at regional and national Farm to School events. During the 2024-2025 school year, these workshops have expanded to other schools and districts around Vermont. These workshops are built around the central question, “How do we raise awareness about food and trauma and how do we understand how our actions impact others so that we aren’t unintentionally creating stress for our students?” and they invite participants to be vulnerable, share food stories with each other, learn how to support their most vulnerable students, and unpack their implicit biases around food.

In November, 10 para-educators from WSESU attended the training on their professional development day. In January, 16 school wellness leaders in WNESU attended the training and 24 school wellness leaders in Springfield School District received the training.  In March, 15 teachers at Central Elementary School in Bellows Falls and 6 school staff members from Northfield Schools in CVSU received the training.  All in all, this training has touched the lives of 5,525 students in 4 different school districts in Vermont.

One of the participants from Northfield reached out to Sheila after the training with these words, “I have to say, your workshop was very well organized, thought out, heartfelt, and honestly one of the best FTS workshops I have attended in a very long time! Thank you!” Overall, the training has been very well-received by educators throughout the state, who are seeing an increase in trauma in their students and looking for ways to address it.  “It is a privilege to share this work with educators around the state, and to know that the information is having a positive impact on Vermont youth,” says Sheila.

If you are interested in bringing this training to your school community, please contact Farm to School Program Director Kris Nelson, kris@foodconnects.org.


Good Neighbors: Vernon Elementary School’s Bulk Milk Partnership with Miller Farm

An Interview with Mary Ross and Shannon Connolly, by Kris Nelson

On February 10th, I attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at Vernon Elementary School, where they celebrated the installation of a bulk milk dispenser in their cafeteria, with milk supplied from their neighbor, Miller Farm, the first of its kind in WSESU. The groundwork was laid for this in October 2023 when bulk milk dispensers were installed in the WNESU schools, with milk from Miller Farm in Vernon through a partnership between NOFA-VT and WNESU and support from Food Connects.

With the coming changes to the food service in WSESU next year, I wanted to learn more about how Vernon secured the milk dispenser and why it was important to them to persevere in this effort. Recently I spoke with Vernon Elementary School Principal, Mary Ross, and Vernon Kitchen Manager, Shannon Connolly, to hear the story. We sat in the school cafeteria near the newly installed bulk milk dispenser and piles of new cups. This interview is lightly edited for clarity. 

Farmer Pete Miller of Miller Farm oversees the official ribbon cutting of Vernon Elementary School’s new Organic Bulk Milk Dispenser

KN: First, congratulations on your new bulk milk dispenser, right here next to us. Mary, when we chatted at the ribbon cutting, you indicated that the school had been working hard at this for a while. I wanted to hear more about how that came about. I get the impression that the two of you were pretty tenacious. 

MR: (laughing): She found a word that describes us! 

KN: Okay, great. Well, tell me what “tenacious” looks like. 

MR: Let’s see. How many years has it been? 

SC: For me it’s been four years. When I first started, I was curious why we would go on field trips to see Miller Farm but then we would not have his milk. 

MR: Similarly, one of our staff members shared an article with me when Windham Northeast was getting the grant. She said, “Wouldn't this be nice for us?” And I said, “Oh, I've been working on this for a while now.”  

KN: And why were you working on that?

MR: I look out my window at a community-owned family organic farm that has a wonderful product. These are community partners that are always lovely with us. They've donated products in the past to our school. They've been welcoming of kids coming over for field trips. When Pete Miller was in here for the ribbon cutting ceremony, you saw a kiddo run up and give him a huge hug, because he's seen as a community farmer and a leader and a source of comfort, I guess. During COVID, supply chains being what they were, there were times when I was going in my vehicle to pick up milk at another school because the milk couldn't be delivered since we were short-staffed. There were times when in delivery one of the milk containers would burst and a lot of the milk containers got sticky. And so, okay, that's the world of the global food supply chain, but I knew it could be different. 

Watching Windham Northeast go through the process, it became even more frustrating since we've been asking the food service company for years to find a way to do more local food and find a way to have Miller Farm as a community partner. The answers we got over the years were per USDA regs. We need to have two kinds of milk. I kept asking myself, if Windham Northeast is under the same regulations, how is that possible? I'm not in charge of food service, but that's something that's been coming out of my mouth for many, many years, and is a goal I have for our school. How can we make it happen? Our Vernon school board has been supportive of that as well. 

From Left: Pete Miller, Shannon Connolly (Vernon ES Kitchen Manager), Danielle Sage (Vernon Kitchen Staff Member), Susan Grabowski (WSESU Food Program Coordinator).

SC: Yes, they’ve been very supportive.

KN: They’ve been supportive of switching to bulk milk? 

MR: Yes, and asking the question over the years: “Hey, I saw this article, hey, I saw the story, why aren't we doing this?” And me saying, “I'm doing my best.” We even put it as an open agenda item over a series of school board meetings to kind of follow up and see if there had been any progress. And so, very recently, I was told by the food service company that it was possible and that if we wanted to go forward with it, we could.

And so then, Shannon, you worked with Pete and maybe you could talk a little bit about the many forms and processes that were required of him to get it to this point. It was pretty arduous for him. 

SC: It was hard, yeah. Kris, when you came a year and a half ago for a Food Service Advisory Meeting, you had given me Harley's name (Harley Sterling, WNESU Director of School Nutrition), so I reached out to Harley. And then Pete had given me everyone up in Windham Northeast, all their numbers to try and get the ball rolling. But there was grant writing and all sorts of crazy hoops that we had to jump through and it was not feasible for one person. So I reached out to Susan (WSESU Food Service Coordinator Susan Grabowski) and Mary also did a lot of researching and talking to people. It was just easier for the food service to say let's just get Hood Milk. It's just easier this way. 

KN: Can you say more about what were some of the barriers? 

SC: So the USDA states that you have to offer a child skim milk and 1%. I wish it was whole. We should be getting milk that has more fat in it. You need that fat for brain development. Anyway, so we always had the 1% and the skim milk from Hood and now Miller does skim and 1%. Pete’s 1% milk is not homogenized, so you get that little cream line at the top, so you gotta shake the bag. He doesn't do skim milk in the big bags, but we get skim milk from Hood so that we have it on hand. I think with Miller Farm milk, it's a start to really getting local Vermont products. But it was rough trying to get people to understand that we literally look out the window and see Pete's cows. Like, why wouldn't we have that milk? Why wouldn't that have just been like a staple to start out with? 

MR: And that's why I'm excited that we're going to an independent food service. Because Shannon, you get up really early every morning and you sometimes are by yourself and you do hard things for kids. Like, that's what we do. We make these decisions to work in school so we can do hard things in support of what kids deserve. And I think that when that's the goal instead of profit being the goal, you're gonna see a difference, right? 

SC: Absolutely. And I have a nursing background, so when I see the ingredient list for something and it's got three times the amount of sodium that a child should have in one day, it literally makes my eye twitch. I'm really trying to stop using canned tomato sauce, for example. I roast vegetables and tomatoes and make my own sauce. It's literally just roasted vegetables and I puree everything and the kids are like, “Wow, this sauce is so great. This is really good sauce.” And they have no idea that there's Brussels sprouts, that there's mushrooms, that there's peppers, that there's onions and things that I have to serve per the guidelines of the district. But they won't eat cauliflower. They won't eat Brussels sprouts. But they love everything “tomato sauce.” So on their pizza they're getting mushrooms and peppers and cauliflower and broccoli and they don't even know, but they love it. 

KN: You are making it happen. 

SC: Yeah, trying to. 

KN: There’s the goal of the students eating these things, and you’re saying, “I know how to do that.” 

SC: Right, yeah. Give me some freedom and I'll make it happen. I think going independent is going to be so much better with the food coming out of the kitchen. 

MR: And it's already pretty great. 

SC: Thank you. 

MR: I've said publicly, the work that our staff here has done, the work that, Shannon, you've done with your leadership, has insulated us from challenges that other schools have had. 

SC: Thank you. 

KN: It does often take that person in that job to work the system and to be creative.

SC: I’ve been written up many times. 

KN: Oh, really? And not in a good way!

SC: No, no. I don’t follow the recipes. But I'm not adding extra sugar into things. Like the tomato sauce, I don't add sugar to it, I add carrots. Makes it sweeter. And it's natural. I'm so grateful that Harley is coming because I feel like that's not something I would have to beg him to do or to try.

KN: You're gonna have an ally. 

SC: Yes. Exactly, but it's something I had to beg for. 

KN: And possibly get written up. 

SC: Yeah. 

KN: What seems so great is that Vernon getting a bulk milk dispenser, and developing a partnership with Miller Farm, intersects so nicely with the recent decision that was made about the independent food service. The stars are aligning in a certain way because you were successful in getting this right about the same time, so perhaps there’s an evolution that we’re seeing. 

SC: There's so many chemicals in our food that we buy. I don't know what these kids eat at home, but I know that I can provide them with something that's not full of chemicals, that's good and nutritious and that they want to eat. So that's my motivation. I wouldn't serve it to these kids if I wouldn't serve it to my own child. Making the sauce is a big deal because they like it, and it's good and it's healthy for them and they're getting things that they might not be getting at home. So, that's my motivation: to give them something good and healthy and something that they'll eat. 

MR: I was a reduced lunch kid myself as a kid. I think that food is more than food. It's an opportunity to gather. It's an opportunity to nourish your body so you can work and learn throughout the day. It's an opportunity to care for other people. When kids see that Shannon and Danielle have prepared delicious food for them, they feel cared for. To look out the window and see community partners and know that this milk I'm drinking came from that cow over there, that’s not abstract. It's not the same as the sticky carton that came from I'm not sure where. I know Mr. Miller. I've seen those cows. That's how I'm getting this nourishment for my body. It is pretty special.