Harwood has a goal to meet 15% of the breakfast and lunch budget on locally produced food according to the Harwood lunch menu. This includes products like apples, breads, cheddar cheese, and basil, just to name a few.
In Vermont from the year 2023-present, school lunch has been free to all students. With breakfast in the mornings including muffins and fruits, and lunch everyday.
Common Ground went around school asking people’s favorite lunch, and their thoughts on how the quality of food is here at Harwood. The most popular being the baked sandwiches, supplied from Red Hen Bakery and Cabot cheese.At school there are several Foreign exchange students, two of them, Ola and Elena, shared their opinions on our lunch.
“We have no lunch at my school back home, so when people complain here about the lunch I don’t get it,” said Ola Romanowska, a foreign exchange student from Poland.
“We don’t have lunch either, but I can tell the quality is worse than at home,” said Italian foreign exchange student Elena Busnelli.
Their favorite lunches are baked sandwiches and pizza for Ola, and breakfast for lunch for Elena. Since they don’t get time for lunch or provided food they have to eat after school ends. Although they have shorter days from school starting at eight in the morning and ending mid day at two.
Overall, Elena and Ola enjoy Harwood’s school lunch and appreciate it everyday.
Above is an average lunch in an Italian primary school. They have a longer lunch time of an hour and a half.
And have multiple courses; they also learn table manners. This also helps them learn social skills, because they are there for so long; they are generating conversation skills as well.
While the Italian lunch looks amazing it comes with a cost, Italian’s pay high taxes.
The average cost of school lunch in America is six dollars and the average cost in Italy is between 2.5-5 euro. Vermont having free lunch sounds great, but it ends up costing tax payers an extra 18.5 million each year. (Vermont legislative )
“I think our school lunch is good compared to the rest of America,” said senior Milo Lavit, after being asked how he thought the lunch at Hardwood stacked up. That was the general consensus in the school. And they were right. Harwood is lucky to have an emphasis on local produce, and it shows in their lunches.
Harwoods lunch department, although being slightly understaffed, still provides what the kids need to make the best out of their full day of learning at school.
