Too often we take for granted the food that enters our bodies. We wake up, grab something for breakfast and off we go into the busyness of our day. Living at a New England boarding school, our connection to the food we eat becomes even more distant as we are fortunate to have talented dining service teams provide three warm meals a day to us. Thankfully, Proctor's Dining Services team's creativity in the kitchen and passion for serving healthy, local food options regularly reminds us to be acutely aware of how we are fueling our bodies for learning.

Whether it is hosting a special Lakota Dinner (featuring local buffalo meat!) to honor Proctor’s enduring connection to Native American cultures or complementing Saturday’s “Around the World” celebration with a special lunch menu featuring dishes from around the world, Proctor’s Dining Services team understands their unique role in our community; a role that operates at the intersection of education, community awareness, environmental stewardship, and nutrition.

This work by our Dining Services team is further complemented by courses like Amy Makechnie’s Anatomy and Physiology class that makes nutrition a staple of the curriculum. The class recently completed research projects on adolescent nutrition. Check out Zack ‘16 and Amanda’s ‘17 work as just two examples of how students are learning how to best fuel their bodies!

As construction on the new Proctor Dining Commons begins to accelerate this spring, we become even more excited about our ability to positively influence our students’ nutritional habits. With new kitchen facilities, open food preparation stations, and far more space to operate, our Dining Services team will be able to further expand their work of helping each member of the community connect to the food they consume. 

We are not naive enough to think a new Dining Commons will eliminate the run to Pizza Chef for a pizza or walk across the street to Jake's Market for a donut on the way to class. But, we are optimistic that through continued education around the important relationship between nutrition and learning we can curb those bad habits and teach healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Afterall, as a boarding school, it is our responsibility to prepare students for all the challenges they will face in life - including what to eat for breakfast!