Who Feeds Our Kids: Steve Napoli

Welcome to Food Connects’ series highlighting the amazing essential workers in our community who work hard every day to keep our children fed. Read on to learn more!

Steve Napoli

Steve is the head custodian at Putney Central School, where he has worked for 10 years. When schools closed in March, Steve rolled up his sleeves and went to work helping get meals out to students. We sat down in June and had a chat about his work and how things have changed for him. Here are some highlights from that conversation:

Sheila Humphreys (SH): How has your work changed due to COVID-19?

““In the beginning, it was an eerie feeling but we knew we had to get the meals out because this is what we do, we take care of the community.””

— Steve Napoli

Steve Napoli (SN): In normal times, I work during the school day and usually the kitchen is pretty set unless someone is sick, then I’ll jump in and do dishes or something, but usually I just clean the cafeteria, put tables away and stuff like that. Ever since the first day we started serving meals after schools closed, I’ve been involved with it. Now we’re numb to it, but in the beginning it was an eerie feeling, but we knew we had to get the meals out because this is what we do, we take care of the community. It’s been a long road, preparing about 100 bags every day with 2 meals in them.

SH: What has kept you going during these unusual times?

SN: My faith is #1, and #2 is the appreciation that the community has shown. They really appreciate it. They are out there getting their lunches every day, and sometimes they drop off surprises here for us, it feels good. It’s a great, great community, unlike any other in this country. For example, we do the lantern supper every year and it’s magnificent. No where else do you see that, it’s pretty unique. 

SH: Do you have children at home?

SN: I have an 18 year old who just graduated from high school in Keene. He enlisted in the Navy and is shipping out August 4, so I have 2 weeks to spend good time with him before he has to quarantine. He will be stationed in Florida. He is excited.

SH: What has been your biggest challenge during this time?

SN: I don’t feel like anything is challenging here at work. It’s been going pretty smoothly. We get here every day, we get it done, and we go home. After I get home sometimes I actually have to take a nap because it’s kind of stressful to think of the big picture, but other than that, I stay pretty busy and that’s helpful.

SH: How can the community support you and other food service workers during this time?

SN: This community is supportive because they show their appreciation. When I see someone in the general store or something, the first thing they say to me is thank you. And that’s because of this community. I’ve seen communities where you don’t get that, but we do, so we are very fortunate.

SH: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in this career?

SN: We are very fortunate at Putney Central. The meals, the food, the freshness, you won’t see this anywhere else. It’s not frozen, it’s all fresh and our cooks are #1. It’s unbelievable to taste the product that comes out of this kitchen. It could be a quinoa salad or a homemade mac and cheese or a beet salad, things you don’t see anywhere else. It’s top grade, good food, and you don’t see that in many schools across the country where it’s more commercialized. We’re one of very few schools that run our own kitchen and it makes a difference. During the year when school is open, we serve 3-4 meals a day, with breakfast, healthy snack, lunch, and after school meals. This kitchen is unreal. A lot of people don’t realize what their kids are getting.

SH: What brings you joy? What are some things that you do outside of work that bring you joy?

SN: People. Life in general.

SH: What are you grateful for?

SN: My job. I’m very grateful for this work. I have a wonderful girlfriend that I’m grateful for, and I’m grateful for my son. I’m very fortunate. I’ve been working here for 10 years and it seems like yesterday. I think about how many kids I’ve seen come through here in 10 years. With 200 kids in the building, there are some kids that I don’t even know their names, and other kids who won’t leave my side. They want to learn, learn, learn from me. Everyday normally during school I have a group of kids who work with me after lunch, they help wipe tables and help sweep, so I miss that. These kids are amazing. It’s like one big family. It’s weird not having them here, and I’m happy to know that we are opening up in September. I can’t wait!

Meet Our New Farm to School Coordinator—Michelle Pinter-Petrillo

Food Connects is excited to introduce Michelle Pinter-Petrillo as the newest member of the Farm to School team.

Michelle joins the team as the newest Farm to School Coordinator. Michelle comes to Food Connects with a variety of experience teaching and getting people excited about cooking food. She will support Farm to School teams in the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union and Windsor Central Supervisory Union. Most recently, she designed and taught garden, nutrition, and food justice education in public schools in Oakland, CA. She has also served as a private chef, culinary school instructor, and teaches online under her brand, That Vegetable Lady.

Michelle took some time to answer some of our questions, so you could get to know her better!

What interested you most about Food Connects and why are you excited to start working here?

I am really excited about the opportunity to serve as part of a network to support schools, farmers, and local organizations working in communities around this region. Food Connects works alongside so many incredible people and I am excited to expand my own knowledge and understanding of the local food system through this network.

I grew up in Springfield, VT, and was looking to get involved in local school food. I had been following projects in southern Vermont for a few years and I was really drawn to the way that Food Connects brings together different community groups, partners, and individuals to share resources and collaborate. I’m excited to be here!

What do you see for the future of Food Connects and what you will do here? What are your hopes and dreams for this position?

The future of Food Connects will ebb and flow with the future of our food system and that is one of the main reasons that I am excited about being part of this team. Right now everyone is rapidly learning how to best support families in our community through the COVID-19 pandemic and I am sure our work will continue to change.

Growing up in a small town in southern Vermont, food was a way that I learned about different parts of the world and people who didn’t look like me. Food was a way that I learned about what healed my body and how to love and nurture my family. My hope is during my time here at Food Connects, I can continue to push our team to think about how the topic of food can be used to teach anti-racism, body positivity, team building, and connect youth with community service. 

Tell us a little bit more about your online brand, That Vegetable Lady.

I created That Vegetable Lady initially to share my work teaching garden and food education in Oakland schools. During that time, I was diagnosed with celiac disease and even though I had been working in public health education for 8 years, my personal health struggles drastically changed my understanding of food as medicine. It was at that point that I got a certification in holistic nutrition and started to develop online educational programming to share with others.

One common thread that I have found in different states, different schools, and different families is that many Americans are intimidated by cooking veggies. So through my brand, I address that by serving as what I call a Vegetable Promoter.  I share my enthusiasm for vegetables, efficient prep techniques, and strategies to get the most flavor out of each bite. I create videos, teach online classes, and design E-books to share ways to increase self-esteem and efficiency in the kitchen. I currently only work with a few private clients but I look forward to creating more videos soon.

What are some of your hobbies?

I love to play soccer, spend time in the sunshine, and read with my dog, Roxy, at my feet. This winter I am hoping to take my sewing to the next level and start making clothes!

If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs—such as food and water—were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?

As a millennial, I would have to say an e-reader so I can read thousands of books while I wait to be saved and then a ball of some sort. Soccer? Basketball? Bouncy? It depends on the type of surface we’re working with.

What is your favorite or least favorite food?

Vegetable Lady Confession: Celery is not my cup of tea.

I don’t have a favorite food, but after many years away and I so excited for my first macintosh apple right off the tree.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I bounced around from wanting to be a firefighter to astronaut to a math professor but after reading my first book by Ruth Reichl, I knew I wanted to eat, cook, and write about food. I went on to write articles critiquing the school nutrition policy in my high school paper and I taught my first cooking class in my freshman college dorm so I like to think I am still pursuing that dream.

August 2020 Farm To School Newsletter

August Newsletter

Making Reopening Easier with Farm to School

School Meal Enrollment

Indigenous NH Harvest Calendar Curriculum

Who Feeds Our Kids?

USDA Grants Awarded to Food Connects

School Meal Enrollment Opens Ahead of Upcoming School Year

School nutrition programs are an essential part of students’ lives, local Farm to School programs, and school success. One of the easiest ways to support your school’s nutrition program is by enrolling in free and reduced meals. The 2020-21 form is available here and this tip sheet from Hunger Free Vermont helps walk you through the short, one-page application. 

Many families may be newly eligible for the program due to COVID-19 related changes to their family income. Even if you’ve never applied before, this year is a crucial time for schools looking to balance budgets and maintain progress—submitting the application helps your entire community!  

Food Connects has compiled a School Meals Enrollment hub to help you easily find additional information and know where to send your application once it’s completed. Specific questions should be directed to your school but our team is always happy to help get you connected as well.

Introducing the Indigenous NH Harvest Calendar Curriculum

This year, New Hampshire Farm to School and the Indigenous NH Collaborative Collective are highlighting local, indigenous crops with the Indigenous NH Harvest Calendar curriculum. The curriculum is divided up into four seasons and also follows the Abenaki method of measuring time, the 13 Moon calendar. For each season, different ingenious food sources are highlighted as well as recipes and activities. 

Some of these may already be a familiar sight in your school garden or around campus—others, a new learning opportunity for your students. We love the book’s background on each harvest, the inclusion of nutritional information, as well as the crop’s historical context. We also 

Farm to School programming is rooted in the land, yet too often the history and stories of those who have lived here (wherever “here” may be) for millennia are overlooked. By teaching their history and elevating their work, we remind students of a Native American culture that is still thriving today. This naturally leads to larger lessons of history and modern-day social justice issues. This deepens the curriculum and, by using indigenous foods as a vehicle for talking about these more difficult topics, gives students the opportunity to connect on an individual level. 

We’d love to hear from you if you try out any of the recipes or activities with your students! Send stories and pictures to farmtoschool@foodconnects.org.

Making Reopening Easier with Farm to School

Vermont is caught in a catch-22. While some families and teachers have serious health concerns about students going back to school, other parents don’t know how to make work work without the essential child care school provides.  

Days ago, Governor Scott announced that school reopenings will be delayed until September 8. Across the state, districts are creating reopening plans in a patchwork response—ensuring that going back to school will look very different for families, students, and teachers. At Food Connects, the Farm to School (FTS) program is continuing to support schools and thinking of creative solutions to the realities brought on by COVID-19. 

We’re always wary of adding more to teachers' plates, preferring to find areas of overlap or lessons that can be enhanced through an experiential, FTS lens. This is true now more than ever for our team. It’s going to take a whole-community response to successfully reopen our schools and ensure the safety of our students and school staff. We see a part of that response as leveraging the work done by Food Connects and the VT FTS Network in integrating outdoor, place-based instruction into the school day.

Interest in gardens nationwide spiked this past spring and our FTS teams across the region worked diligently to ensure that their school-based gardens would be bountiful and in bloom this fall. These spaces provide countless opportunities for classes to get outside, spread out, and dive into cross-disciplinary lessons. 

The need for more outdoor learning is bringing new schools and classrooms into the word of Farm to School, which has already established curriculums, lessons, and activities that are ready to be implemented. Forest schools and long-standing FTS programs have experience bringing students outside in different weather conditions and know how to adapt spaces cheaply to create weather-protected outdoor classrooms. 

In addition to questions over logistics, there are concerns regarding the social and emotional effects the pandemic has on students—whether that is from decreased stability at home, heightened food insecurity, or generalized anxiety of the moment. Food Connects continues to champion the connection between FTS and trauma-sensitive responses in schools. Increased sensitivity to food-related trauma, the therapeutic nature of gardening with students, and the opportunities FTS programming provides students to build greater resilience will all be crucial in this coming year. 

School meals haven’t stopped since the pandemic started. From meal delivery via buses straight into an adapted summer food service program, school nutrition professionals continue to work tirelessly to feed their communities. Farm to School organizations like Food Connects help make that work easier by helping Food Service Directors (FSDs) submit equipment grants, create new food relief programs in partnership with schools and food shelves, and collaborating on meal enrollment campaigns and implementing new engagement strategies. We see our unique role as the regional support organization for school nutrition programs as crucial for this coming year. 

School is going to be different this coming year and difficult for every community. It’s going to require a truly collaborative effort to make the experience safe and engaging for students—who have been without the social and emotional support schools and peers provide for over six months. Food Connects is grateful to be in the position to support schools as they navigate these trying times. 

Who Feeds Our Kids: Jessica Boucher

Food Connects is launching a new series highlighting the amazing essential workers in our community who work hard every day to keep our children fed. Read on to learn more!

Jessica Boucher

Introducing Jessica Boucher! As a school food service professional, Jessica has fed students in our community for the past two years. She worked at Green Street School during the 2018-2019 school year and at Dummerston School this past school year, until schools closed in March when she joined the team that prepares meals for all the schools at the Academy School kitchen. We sat down recently and had a chat about her work and how things have changed for her this spring. Here are some highlights from that conversation:

“If I could change what people think about ‘lunch ladies,’ I would want them to know that we really care about the kids and that we are here to help the students.”

— Jessica Boucher

Sheila Humphreys (SH): How has your work changed due to COVID-19?

Jessica Boucher (JB): It’s very different. I’m working in a different school, and we’re working out of both the kitchen and the gym—cooking and bagging breakfasts, lunches, and dinners every day. I’m working a few more hours than I used to. There is a lot more food going out every day. In Dummerston, I would usually make lunch for about 70 kids. Now we’re feeding over 500 every day! There are a lot of special dietary needs, and I have some new co-workers from other schools.

SH: What has kept you going during these unusual times?

JB: What keeps me going is knowing that there are kids out there that are getting food that they wouldn’t get otherwise. I can’t sit home all day, I need to be busy working, so my work helps keep me sane.

SH: Do you have children at home? 

JB: Yes, I have three children, ages 16, 10, and 11.

SH: How are you managing with child care?

JB: My kids have been home on their own during the day. It’s not going so well, they aren’t doing their work like they should be doing, especially my high schooler. They have figured out how to do chores, though! It’s been a blessing and a curse.

SH: What has been your biggest challenge during this time?

JB: Remote learning. I come home from work and I go right into getting dinner ready and making sure the kids have done at least some school work and their chores. My stepdaughter is there sometimes too, so that’s 4 kids and they know how to make a mess!

SH: How can the community support you and other food service workers during this time?

JB: They can support us by recognizing us for doing a good job. We’ve always kind of been looked down on as “lunch ladies.” Our age range goes from 22 up into the 60s. When you think about your school lunch lady, you think of an old grouchy lady, and that lunch ladies don’t do a lot but we do a lot of hard work and a lot of what we cook is made from scratch. We have a large amount of cooking and packing to do in such a short amount of time. Everything we cook has to be packed and ready to go by 9:30 am each morning, which takes a lot! If I could change what people think about “lunch ladies,” I would want them to know that we really care about the kids and that we are here to help the students. It’s been hard not having the kids around, we’re used to seeing them all the time and we miss them! I’ve gotten to know a lot of kids. I know some of them come from difficult backgrounds and I’m worried about them. As a lunch lady, sometimes I feel like I’m a counselor too. The kids open up to me sometimes and tell me about being bullied by other kids or problems they have at home. I tell kids that if they don’t feel safe, they need to tell someone. When a kid tells me about a problem, I let the office know. I feel like we’re easier to talk to because we’re not teachers, we’re the lunch ladies and we sneak them extra tater tots and stuff and they like that. We’re part of the team of people that helps kids feel safe in the school.

SH: What advice would you give to someone who is interested in this career?

JB: If you’re interested, go for it! It’s not a job that’s going to pay all your bills, so if you are struggling and it’s your only source of income it’s probably not the best job for you. It’s a rewarding job with little pay, much like many other jobs. I myself have been nicer to my kids just seeing how hard it is for some of the kids in the schools where I work. I like the schedule, but all the vacations can be hard because you aren’t paid during that time. You can get unemployment during the vacations, but it’s a lot of hassle to get that set up.

SH: What brings you joy? 

JB: Seeing smiling kids, happy kids, and when the kids tell me they like the food and how good of a job I’m doing. 

SH: What is one thing you are grateful for?

JB: I’m grateful that I have a job, that I wasn’t laid off. I’m grateful for my community for stepping up and helping out and volunteering to help us get the food out to these kids.

USDA Grants Food Connects Funds for Local Food System Development

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded $99,990 in funding to Food Connects in its latest round of awards. One of two Vermont grantees, Food Connects will leverage these funds to develop new supply chains focused on meeting the needs of school nutrition programs. 

To increase the impact of the project, we are collaborating with three Farm to School partners—Vital Communities, Green Mountain Farm-to-School, and VT FEED. This collaboration connects local food systems to larger regional networks, allowing for the creation of new supply chains and specialty products to move throughout the state. 

We will amplify our current outreach efforts, reaching more schools and developing a broadened customer base for local farms and producers. In partnership with VT FEED, we will also increase its support to school nutrition professionals (SNPs) through new professional development opportunities and procurement training.

“This grant is a natural next step for Food Connects and will help us grow to meet the needs of the moment,” says Richard Berkfield, Food Connects Executive Director. “Interest in the Food Hub—and local food in general—skyrocketed in the wake of COVID-19 and we continue to see unprecedented demands placed on school nutrition professionals working to cope with an unpredictable future.”

COVID-19 greatly changed the landscape Food Connects operates in since originally writing the grant. While the grant goals remain the same, implementation will likely vary and need to be flexible in order to remain relevant. Notably, SNPs throughout the state are grappling with new restrictions and limitations put in place in response to the pandemic. To-go meals and delivering multiple days worth of food at a time have become the new norm. 

We have also seen positive changes post-COVID: a new value placed on local food, consumers more concerned about supply chain resilience, and an appreciation for the role school nutrition plays in children’s lives. With this project, Food Connects and its partners will lay the groundwork for a decentralized, regional alternative to the national monoliths, enabling schools and consumers to buy a variety of products locally, sustainably, and easily. 

July 2020 Farm To School Newsletter

July Newsletter

Farm to School Annual Report

Summer Reading Recommendation

Growing School Gardens

We’re Hiring!

Who Feeds Our Kids?

Harvest of the Month

Summer Garden Hours

Growing School Gardens!

When schools closed in late March, the Farm to School team—along with everyone else—wasn’t sure what would happen next. We knew teachers were swamped, had overflowing inboxes, and not enough hours in the day—so we took a step back, not wanting to add any more noise to their already loud lives. 

In early April, we began fielding questions from teachers interested in school gardens who were unsure as to how best to maintain them during the outbreak. We connected gardeners with resources (notably the Vermont Community Garden Network) and started meeting virtually with Farm to School teams interested in maintaining their outdoor growing spaces and looking for a concrete project to focus on. 

We saw an opportunity to expand the support Food Connects offered and facilitate planning calls and a community of practice for school garden coordinators. The group was able to visit two school gardens—Academy School in Brattleboro and Westminster Community School—before the buzz of summer took hold. These meetings became spaces for educators from throughout the region to share ideas, troubleshoot obstacles, and brainstorm solutions. 

The coming school year is still cloaked in uncertainty, but—thanks to this group of dedicated educators and growers—students can expect to find bountiful gardens. And who knows, teachers may find these outdoor classrooms a useful alternative for lessons beyond life cycles, nutrition, and garden education.

Food Connects works with schools throughout the region. If you have questions or are interested in joining a Farm to School community of practice, let us know! We hope to be able to host our Regional Fall Gathering, in addition to coordinator calls and more informal gatherings this year.