Nourishment Program

Nurturing a Commitment to Nutrition & Stewardship

Nourishment Rooted in Nutrition, Cognitive Support, Community & Stewardship

Lunches and snacks are scratch-made daily utilizing fresh, local ingredients that fuel and sustain students, from Nursery to 6th grade.

Seasonal & Sustainable

Nutrition that Honors Nature’s Seasons and Respects the Earth

Our mission is to provide daily nourishment that reflects seasonality and makes as little impact as possible on our environment.

The commitment of stewardship is a longlasting thread through the history of Anneliese Schools.

By locally growing our own food through regenerative practices and supplementing other goods with a low carbon footprint in mind, we are able to uphold our promise to keep stewardship of the environment top-of-mind.

Our monthly lunch menu mirrors the seasonality of California produce, and our Nourishment team finds unique and inspiring ways to use what’s in season to create flavorful and exciting dishes for our students.

Packaged items are sourced through careful consideration of material density, and meals are cooked with the intention of reducing daily food waste.

By partnering with Southern California farms and nurturing relationships with sustainable producers, we can feed our school community while supporting our regional agriculture economy.

Nourishment That Fuels

Clean, Nutrient-Dense Ingredients to Support Cognition

We believe that focus and academic stamina are supported by nutrition. For optimal success in the classroom and throughout a busy day of robust learning, food should nourish the whole child – not simply fill them up.

Daily meals and snacks are comprised of wholesome, nutrient-dense food made primarily from ingredients in their natural or minimally processed state.

Our lunch and snack menus are designed to support energy, cognition, growth, and overall health. This means cooking scratch-made and whole-food recipes, utilizing fruits and vegetables as nutritional foundations, and sourcing healthy fats and quality proteins.

Our Nourishment team eliminates dyes, preservatives, synthetic additives, HFCS, hydrogenated oils, and nitrates. Refined sugar, salt, and processed ingredients are reduced to uphold our nutrition and wellness values.

Community Table & Education

Cultivating a Holistic, Mindful, Communal Environment that Supports Healthy Practices

Our Nourishment Program isn’t just lunch – it is interwoven into our curriculum. Gardening classes, cooking classes, and garden-to-kitchen programming help students understand where their food comes from and why their choices matter. A morning in the garden eco-literacy class is directly connected to lunchtime; it is all an opportunity to learn about science, health, agriculture, sustainability, and food systems.

Children & teachers all eat together, sharing lunch at a Communal Table. Children are encouraged to try new foods and asked to be mindful to take only what they will eat – with the goal of reducing food waste.

A new program introduced in 2024, Parents at Lunch (PAL’s), invite parents to join their children’s class during lunch to help serve. The kids are parents love this program, giving parents the opportunity to share in their children’s lunch experience.

Students are empowered & educated to make connections to the food on their plate through a school community in which healthy choices are reinforced by adults, peers, and everyday school practices.

The ethos of nourishment, stewardship, community and sustainable food habits is a collective community responsibility.

Connection to Nature

Wellness Rooted in Natural Spaces and Respect for Local Ecosystems

At Anneliese Schools, nourishment and wellness are shaped not only by what students eat, but also by the spaces where they learn, play, and grow.

Our campus environments are designed to support physical, mental, emotional, and ecological well-being alongside their daily nutrition.

Green spaces and wild playgrounds, outdoor play and physical activity, interaction with soil and natural ecosystems – these are all daily facets in a typical day at school. Whether they’re walking to class, playing at recess, or enjoying lunch, students are surrounded by countless opportunities to connect with nature.

Locally Sourced

Guided by Quality, Ethics, and Animal Welfare

Anneliese Schools lovingly owns and operates a regenerative urban farm in Claremont, California called Rebel Mountain🔗.

Each week, seasonal produce is freshly harvested and delivered to our school campuses where it is cooked into daily lunches and snacks through the Nourishment Program.

Other fruits and vegetables not grown on our farm, along with pasture-raised meats and sustainable grains and more, are thoughtfully sourced through smaller food pathways and local companies with shared interests and passions for sustainability.

Scratch-Made

Prepped & Cooked in Our School Kitchens using Fresh Ingredients

Daily lunches and snacks are made fresh in our school kitchens.

Whether using produce harvested from our own local farm or our trusted sustainable producers, the kitchen and farm team lovingly work to prepare nutritious, seasonal meals in-house.

Our guiding principles include using certified organic produce, dairy and poultry when possible, sourcing pasture-raised beef and cage-free eggs, and acquiring responsibly sourced seafood.

Our chef makes a conscious effort to not purchase or serve any individually packaged items.

Students sit down together each day and share hot meals as a community.

The Value of Nutrition

At Anneliese Schools, our nourishment curriculum is carefully designed to educate and develop all facets of the whole child – and that continues through meal time. Every day, our Anneliese Schools Nourishment team prepares whole-food, scratch-made meals with ingredients that support wellness and fuel cognition. Informed, sustainable nutrition paves the way for a successful academic journey.