As the Community Kitchen Manager at Hilltop Montessori School, Ashley Pigford tries to strike a balance between offering unique, healthy options for student lunches, but also food that the kids will actually eat and their parents will be happy ordering for them.
“We offer a scratch-made, healthy, hot lunch to the students at Hilltop Montessori,” Pigford said. “We try to emulate the Edible Schoolyard program in Berkeley, California. We love the connection of the garden to the school kitchen.”
She hopes their unique school lunchroom approach is interesting to those who want to make changes to their current school lunch program. She also wants to inspire students to try new things and take their newfound interests and make them at home.
“We hope to show students and parents that eating healthy and trying new things is fun,” she said.
She gets plenty of feedback from the students on a daily basis. Her favorite thing is the look of excitement in the students’ eyes when she gives them their meal or the chant of “Hot lunch! Hot lunch!” when she delivers their lunches.
This is the fourth year of cooking lunches on campus, and Pigford said she is looking forward to resuming cooking classes next school year. She said she loves watching the kids learn new things in the kitchen and become empowered to make new things.
“We have big plans for the years to come but are slowly able to incorporate them as we grow,” she said.
