Food and nutrition are complicated topics, shaped by such fraught factors as culture, body image, athletic pressures, time, money and personal taste.
Independent schools in the Baltimore region are helping students build healthy relationships with food.
They are teaching their students that good nutrition builds strong and healthy bodies. They are addressing body image concerns that are too often magnified by peer pressure and social media. They are highlighting sustainable agriculture and celebrating cuisines from around the world.
Many of these lessons and conversations take place in health classes that teach about food groups and well-balanced diets, and discuss the perils of eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Schools also convey messages about nutrition with policies that encourage healthful foods in their cafeterias and at school events, and by limiting less-nutritious items such as candy and sweetened soft drinks on their campuses.
McDonogh School stands out because it has an unusual and historic classroom that it uses to educate students about food, nutrition, agriculture and sustainability: its 10-acre Roots Farm.
The farm’s traditions stretch back to the founding of McDonogh in 1873, when students regularly planted and harvested fruits and vegetables grown on the property. It was revived in 2006 and has grown from a modest garden to a bustling outdoor classroom.
Students tend to the farm throughout the school year. They plant and harvest crops such as tomatoes and potatoes, collect honey from beehives and care for chickens and turkeys.
They prepare meals in the on-campus kitchen, using the foods they have grown and learning culinary skills and creativity in the process.
“On any given day at Roots, students are knee-deep in the soil, marveling at the life teeming around them, or savoring a meal they helped create,” says Sharon Hood, Director of Roots Farm and Culinary Kitchen. “In the process, they develop a deeper understanding of sustainability and a meaningful connection between the environment, society, and the food they eat.”
“Roots is now one of McDonogh’s signature programs—an interdisciplinary space that nourishes minds and bodies. It provides experiential learning for students across all divisions, fresh produce for the school’s dining services, and essential food donations to the Maryland Food Bank,” says Hood.
McDonogh also provides fitness and nutrition classes as part of its middle school wellness curriculum. Eighth graders research a topic such as nutrition, exercise or stress management, and present it at a Wellness Fair at the end of the school year.
The school focuses on healthful eating through a color-coded system that its food service provider uses to show the relative nutritiousness of various lunch choices.
In addition, the upper school offers a seminar, Nonfiction Studies in Food Culture and Systems, inviting students to explore food and nutrition, posing questions about food access, distribution and identity.
At Notre Dame Preparatory School, wellness specialist Tara DeCapite embraces what she calls a “holistic approach to wellness, which begins with looking at how we take care of our bodies and how we talk and think about food and healthy body image.”
The Catholic prep school, for girls in grades six through 12, has “wellness Wednesdays” that focus on particular aspects of health, as well as campaigns such as Love Your Body Week, in partnership with the National Honors Society of Dance Arts; National Eating Disorders Awareness Week; and National Nutrition Month.
A registered dietician visits the school each March for National Nutrition Month, hosting a lunch and learn that’s open to students, faculty and staff. Topics might include fad diets, social media pressures or nutrition for athletic success.
“It really starts with relationships to food,” DeCapite says, noting that health classes also educate students about the signs and consequences of eating disorders.
“Knowledge is power,” she says. “We introduce the idea that all food is good food. “When I introduce mindfulness in my health classes, we incorporate little mini exercises that introduce the girls to the idea of looking at the function of their bodies: The legs do this, the arms do this, the belly does this. We need food to fuel all parts of the body.”
Food is more than fuel. It also represents community. Every October, the school hosts a Taste of World, with various clubs and groups bringing in dishes that are meaningful to them. A “stone soup” event, held each year before the Thanksgiving break, creates a meal for the school community to share, with each grade bringing in a specific ingredient.
It can also be fun.
At The GreenMount School, health teacher Tanza Coursey Aliberti says students in grades four through six take health classes that teach about food groups and well-balanced diets.
“We talk a lot about how many servings are recommended, what those foods do for your body,” she says. “We are inclusive. There are people who can’t drink milk, how can they get dairy? If they don’t eat meat, how to get protein? What if someone has celiac?”
Students in the K-through-eight Remington school play a nutrition game called Blast Off, created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which challenges fourth and fifth graders to provide the right food and exercise for a spaceship so it has enough energy to make it across the universe.
“They really love it,” she says.
This article is part of our 2025-2026 Guide to Baltimore Independent Schools.
