Food is always an indispensable part of our Kent experience.The Kent School dining hall strives to serve students and teachers with a variety of safe, organic, and tasty foods, from roasted short ribs covered in Korean BBQ sauce to warm chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. This year, the dining hall staff has made several exciting improvements regarding the food sources and food choices.

The Kent School dining hall recently developed two new partnerships with local farms. The steaks on our plates now come from Hurlburt Farms’ locally grown, grass-fed ground beef, and the chicken tenders are from Hudson Valley Chicken, an organic poultry farm in the Catskills.

Mr. Hudson, who is in charge of the department of dining services, further introduced his new plan for the spring. “We’re looking forward to the installation of a culinary herb garden on river road outside the student center. We collaborated with the UConn master gardeners program for design and installation,” said Mr. Hudson. The new garden will be able to supply basil, cilantro, lemon balm, mint, chives, sage, rosemary, and many more vegetables.

Besides the improved food sources and ingredients, new food items featuring cuisines from all over the world have been added to the dining hall menu. These items include Apple’s Thai Chicken salad, Harold’s chorizo and eggs, and Corey’s high-quality desserts. “I think sometimes food quality improvement is about the little details, such as the addition of a fresh ginger/garlic mix, scallions, and organic chicken to the stir-fry station,” Mr. Hudson added.

What’s more, the Kent School dining hall is planning to build a dining services advisory committee comprised of students, faculty, and staff to facilitate communication to and from the food department. With the help of the committee, the dining hall staff will be able to serve both the student body and the teachers according to their specific needs.

When asked about the dining hall improvements, Erica Qin ’18 commented that she noticed the improved food quality and loved the newly added desserts. She further expressed her gratitude towards the dining hall staff’s effort to improve our dining experience, such as “extending the hours for hot breakfast from 7:30 to 7:45.”