The School Nutrition Association of Vermont awarded our chef, Cher Anderson, the 2017 “Serving Up Excellence” Award for her "inspiring example and dedication to providing healthy food and education to the students of the Compass School, and for her ongoing commitment to their health and learning.”

Every school day, we offer generous quantities of healthy food, often cooked from scratch, for both lunch and breakfast. Students are allowed to have seconds (and thirds) and no one goes hungry. Cher works hard to meet special dietary needs, offering vegetarian and gluten free options at every meal.

Compass follows federal school lunch guidelines, so students eligible for the free and reduced lunch program receive meals free of charge.

Compass is recognized by the state inspectors for our positive food culture. Noteworthy are the healthy choices students make (including a lot of really good salad eaters) and the low level of food wasted.

The wonderful food offerings create a lovely community culture at meal times. Students and teachers typically eat together and talk with no phones or video games acting as distractions. The breakfast break after first period is a particularly nice time to relax and refresh, while lunch always has a community feel of all being together to share in breaking bread, which is typically baked fresh that day and still warm.

Lunch ends with the an impressive clean-up carried out by students assigned with their advisory. This helps students learn responsibility while also gaining experience in a commercial kitchen environment. Cher teaches cooking and nutrition classes as well, giving students real world skills that can benefit them in any setting.