The Village School Kitchen

Harvesting decorations for our May Day lunch!

Looking for a weekend laundry helper. Our school washing machine is actually not up and running again as we had hoped. 😞 If you can lend a hand by picking up a laundry basket of linens tomorrow to be washed and returned on Monday, please swing by or text Toña at 541-510-8604.

We need help! Our only Wednesday morning volunteer just let us know he isn’t feeling well. Are you able to lend a hand tomorrow after drop off? Even half an hour would be grand.

One of our parent volunteers preps the peppers! 🌶️

Plaedo has got the beets!
IYKYK

These two Village School graduates stopped in to say hi and offer a hand today. We love that they wanted to join us on a day off of school!

This fall, more and more Village School parents have been expressing concern at the increased cost of feeding their families. We know many that regularly seek supplemental food sources as well as rely upon SNAP benefits. Fortunately, The Village School continues to provide free breakfasts and lunches to students on school days, but we know that additional help is needed. In an effort to alleviate some of the stress our neighbors are experiencing related to food insecurity and the potential absence of SNAP funds in November, we will be holding a food drive over the next two weeks. Please join us in collecting shelf stable items for families.

Ways to give: Starting tomorrow, Monday, October 27th, bring in shelf stable foods! We will have a collection basket in the office and another in the Commons. Items will be stored until Monday, November 10th at which time Village School parents and guardians will be invited to sign up for a time to visit the school kitchen and pick out items for their family. Any items leftover will be donated to Waste To Taste/Burrito Brigade, a local nonprofit organization that provides free hot meals and food boxes in our community.

Items that are requested:

Canned foods. Dry staples such as grains, legumes, flours, cereals, sweeteners, salt, oils, nuts, nut and seed butters. Tetra Packs of soup, stock and milk. Clean, dry and cured produce such as garlic, onions and winter squash are welcome as well.

If you have any questions, or want to contribute but are unable to bring items into school on a school day, please contact me at [email protected] or 541-510-8604.

It takes a Village!

Today, nearly 70% of a typical child’s diet is made up of ultra-processed foods, which are associated with more than 30 health conditions. Many of these foods come from K–12 schools, serving more than 30 million children breakfast and lunch every school day.

To protect and improve children’s health — and to access cascading academic, environmental, and economic benefits — schools must serve students more minimally processed meals cooked from scratch.

While most schools want to serve their students more scratch-made meals, their ability to do so is significantly limited by systemic labor, financial, and infrastructure barriers, as well as public perceptions that devalue the critical role school food professionals play in supporting the well-being of our nation’s children.

Autumn apple tasting. Students sampled six PNW varieties. Honeycrisp was the overall favorite!