Preparation and mealtime are a fundamental part of the children’s day at Hundred Hills School, and this is why tuition includes organic snacks and a homemade lunch for all. As Waldorf teacher and author Anne-Marie Fryer Wiboltt writes in her book, Cooking for the Love of the World, “A diet of wholesome, locally grown seasonal foods lays a foundation for clear, open, and living thinking, a healthy inner life of feeling, and a strong will to fulfill our life’s task and purposes.” This perspective resonates deeply with our work at Hundred Hills, where we aim to not only support the children in growing healthy bodies but also joyful, purposeful lives where they learn the importance of caring for each other. We know that the food choices we make directly influence each child’s sense of well-being, as well as their emotional stability and their ability to be in a healthy relationship with the world around them.

The ritual of mealtime with the children is an integral part of the education at Hundred Hills. Gathering around the snack and lunch table offers the children a deep sense of community. It’s an opportunity for them to strengthen bonds that are created through daily shared experiences with their classmates and teachers. The healthy daily snack and lunch rhythms that are well established at Hundred Hills School not only support the children’s development physically, cognitively, and socially, it nurtures their wellbeing as well as their inner sense of balance. Through organic, wholesome, homemade food that is prepared from scratch with the children’s help, they are also nourished by an authentic connection with the food they eat. This daily rhythm, that is held by the teachers with care and devotion, gives the children a sense of security and a sense of time within the day and week. The children develop an understanding of the flow of each day and come to recognize the days of the week through the snacks and lunches that are eaten on a particular day. 

At Hundred Hills School, we see food as more than fuel as it is a source of warmth, connection, and reverence and this is why every snack, every lunch becomes an opportunity to support the development of the children in body, mind, and heart.