Partnership with The Family Table Farm

"we may be witnessing the first generation in history that has not been required to participate in that primal rite of socialization, the family meal...the family meal is not only the core curriculum in the school of civilizing discourse; it is also a set of protocols that curb our natural savagery and our animal greed and cultivate a capacity for sharing and thougtfulness... children today are not only physically starved by the junk food that they consume... far worse, they are deprived of the main course of civilized life- the practice of sitting down at the table and observing the attendant conversations."

-Francine du Plessix Grey

At Bloom! Montessori, we consider it important to create meaningful experiences between our students and sustainably grown food. We want our students to understand where their food comes from, who grows it, how to prepare it, and the importance of sharing it with family and friends.

Young children enjoy preparing food and sharing it with one another. This permits them to care and nurture each other and creates a familial atmosphere of inclusion and belonging. It also provides them with independence, an opportunity to develop fine motor skills, and exposes them to manners, social graces, and courtesies.

We provide children with filtered water and nutritious, whole grain foods. We use organic and Rghb-free ingredients whenever possible. We consciously limit children's intake of processed, unnecessarily sweet or salty, or pre-packaged foods to special occasions.

Daily, children at Bloom! safely prepare their own snacks (peeling eggs and clementines, peeling slicing bananas, cucumbers, and carrots, slicing tofu, baking muffins, juicing oranges, cracking nuts, spreading hummus, almond, or peanut butter), pour water from small pitchers into their own glasses, serve themselves from tiny serving dishes, and eat from real glass plates and cloth napkins. They arrange their communal tables, wait until everyone is served to begin eating, and conclude their meals by washing their own dishes and sweeping and crumbing the tables and floor.

We are very excited to announce that in June we will be including fresh, local produce in our cuisine through our partnership with The Family Table Farm (owned by Mike and Lisel Record)! We will be joining the national Farm to School Program which connects schools with local farms to teach students about the path from farm to fork and instill healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.

As part of the program, we will be sourcing our produce locally from The Family Table Farm, offering our families the option of purchasing their own community supported agriculture (CSA) shares from the farm, and the children will be maintaining an organic vegetable garden and vermicompost program at the school. More information will be coming soon!

In the meantime, we encourage you to check out The Family Table Farm website at: http://www.thefamilytablefarm.com/


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