Torit Montessori is transforming its school lunch and snacks through local farm partnerships and in-house cooking, and is thrilled to announce a partnership with “Farmers to You,” a year-round online farmers’ market which delivers (by bicycle!) fresh, local, and organic produce, pasture-raised meats, and artisan cheese and other goodies to Torit’s Cambridge Street kitchen.
Torit also sources food from Stillman Meats, Valicenti Pasta and Red’s Seafood. All of these local producers appear at local farmers markets around Massachusetts, including Copley Square and the Boston Public Market.
“This wonderful partnership with local farmers and producers is the culmination of years of planning and collaboration leading to the build-out and launch of our own commercial-grade kitchen,” said Kristen Mansharamani, executive head of school. “Cooking and serving our own hot lunches using allergy-free, organic and locally sourced foods, including supplemental groceries from Whole Foods, was a goal of mine since Torit’s founding. I hope this can serve as a model for schol lunch, because the right nutritional balance is inherently related to both academics and general student success.”
Renee Chan, mother of both an elementary and a preschool student at Torit, enthusiastically embraced the partnership, and carefully worked out menu options with input from teachers, students, staff and our in-house chef, Kelli McKoy of First Bite Catering. As a bonus, fourth-graders put their journalism skills to work, researching the farms and interviewing farmers, to produce a short video on what they learned
“Chef Kelli is an excellent, thoughtful chef,” said Chan. “Everyone loves her cooking, which appeals to children’s developing taste buds and satisfies adult palates, too. And parents are thrilled, too, because snack and lunch are included in tuition. It’s great to see students enjoying lunch every day, and serving one another in a spirit of community and helpfulness.”
To see the students’ video and learn more about the Torit School- Local farms partnership, visit Torit Montessori at toritschool.org/torit-table.