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Healthy Beginnings in the Lower School

Paul Downey '92
Ensworth focuses on the emotional and physical well-being of its students through all grades, but the foundation begins in the Lower School when healthy, balanced lives are developed through the Life and Physical Education curricula. Faculty and staff also teach students about nutrition, helping students build a solid foundation for healthy choices that will last throughout their lives.
Kindergarteners enter Ensworth having rarely relied on themselves to make choices about what to eat. The dining hall allows these young Tigers to make tasty, healthy choices but with a little guidance. Starting in the fall of 2018, Ensworth’s lunch program became much more systematically healthy through the contract with SAGE Dining Services. One of the leading foodservice providers specifically serving schools, the company uses the SAGE Spotlight Program® to help students and parents make informed decisions to balance taste and nutritional value. Foods are color-coded according to nutrient density and suggested portion control.
 
Joe Petriello, Food Service Director, is a veteran of several local schools’ kitchens and thrives in this atmosphere. “Chef Joe” is very popular for his weekly “Seasonings” tables where students can build culinary creations. “They are meant to be monotony breakers,” he explains, “and add a little more excitement to the dining experience for the students and faculty.” Seasonings tables have included a taco bar, a loaded potato bar, a soft pretzel bar, a nacho bar, a hot chocolate bar, and a churro bar.
 
A man peddling churros is bound to make friends. “I've also been working on my acting career,” Joe says. “I play the role of ‘Chef Joe’ in the fourth-grade play on January 24th. The fourth graders have been checking with me to make sure I have been practicing my lines.”
 
Although Chef Joe is having fun and doing what he enjoys at Ensworth, he knows that companies like SAGE have a huge responsibility to youth in society and to stay on top of trends. SAGE is one of many companies, he explains, that “are actively embracing these values by offering transparency in regards to their menu options such as nutritional and caloric information, offering special dietary menus to fit the needs of the rising food allergies, working with farmers to develop clean ‘farm to table’ menus, planting their own gardens to pull supply from, composting, sourcing from local vendors, and encouraging more plant-based diets and menus.”
 
Beyond the dining hall, students in Grade 2 benefit from a program that combines food science and art to learn about different types of nutrient-dense foods. Part of the national culinary nutrition program of the same name, Veggiecation came to Ensworth with the help of Grade 2 teacher Hope Moeller. With a large illustrated backdrop, painted by art teacher Evie Coates, the Grade 2 students learn about a new vegetable every week, studying the subject’s growth, nutritional value, taste, and uses in recipes. 
 
Moeller says that Veggiecation came about because she and her fellow Grade 2 teachers “were aware that our students were often unwilling to try new foods in the lunchroom or snack tray.” With the Veggiecation lessons, students try new vegetables prepared in interesting ways and learn how to be respectful in the process. 
 
“We encourage our students to give each vegetable a try—as a scientist—using their sense of taste to compare veggies to each other,” she explains. “But no one is looking over your shoulder to be sure you eat it. Our biggest rule is: ‘Don't yuck someone else's yum.’ If you don't like it, you just throw it away without making a big deal about it.”
 
And, as many parents know, they aren’t miracle workers and cannot force their children into liking something, but Moeller does see her work paying off. “I have heard from parents that often have their children ask to make a vegetable we have made in class,” she recalls. “I do hear some feedback in the lunchline sometimes, like ‘It's zucchini!’”
 
These positive examples and efforts represent just a small number of ways that Ensworth fosters an appreciation for wellness and nutrition in our youngest students, laying a foundation for a healthy lifestyle.
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Red Gables Campus (K–8)

Nashville, TN 37205
(615) 383-0661

Frist Campus (9–12)

Nashville, TN 37221
(615) 301-5400
Ensworth is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade, independent day school.