Programs
Our Kitchen
NDS strives to provide a wide variety of healthy, nutritious meals to our children while continually encouraging young children to try new and exciting foods they might not be exposed to otherwise.
We like to engage the children in taste tests as well as joining us in preparing the food. In conjunction with Harvest of the Month, we partner with Yoder Farm and Laughing Child. We recently started purchasing local buffalo from Mountbrook Farm in Dorset. NDS sources as many local products as possible and is eagerly building a Farm to School network in partnership with the Bennington County Farm to Early Childhood Collaborative and the Northeast Farm to School Institute. While the children currently can not help with food preparation due to Covid19, we are looking forward to them joining
us in the kitchen again soon.
Farm to School
The Farm to School program is growing at Northshire Day School! The seeds were sown several
years ago when we began purchasing locally grown produce for the school meal program. For the
past 5 years, our school garden is an integral part of our Preschool program. In early 2019, the NDS
Farm to School Committee formed and began developing a plan to integrate sustainable Farm to School practices throughout the NDS community. We began by implementing school wide composting.
In early 2020, our program was awarded a Child Nutrition Grant from the VT Agency of Agriculture,
which will help us expand our Farm to School efforts. We have formed a partnership with Oak Hill
Children's Center called the Bennington County Farm to Early Childhood Collaborative. Together, this team is participating the Northeast Farm to School Institute and collectively focused on creating a
regional infrastructure that will promote and support Farm to Early Childhood engagement throughout
Bennington County. We aspire to create a connected community where children, families, educators, and community members all have access to a nutritious, locally sourced food, and meaningful lifelong learning experiences. If you are interested in joining the family committee, please email Maggie, mrubick@northshiredayschool.org
Currently the Farm to School Committee is running a book drive to obtain books for all of the classrooms that will connect the children with the themes of farms, food, gardening and fun. If you would like to learn more or make a donation, please visit our book drive page.
VINS Small Wonders
Small Wonders from the Vermont Institute of Natural Science is a nature education program rich in science content and rooted in imagination and hands-on experience. This program inspires science discovery, nature play, investigations and engineering. Small Wonders engages preschool aged children in the natural world by fostering curiosity, appreciation, understanding, and responsibility for the environment. The lessons are developmentally appropriate for young children as they are participating in fun, play-based ecology education.
