Watertown Public Schools in Watertown, Connecticut runs a nutrition program where students expect taste tests, a customizable salad bar, local ingredients, and a living culinary garden. Over one grant cycle, the district turned all four into permanent fixtures — and came out the other side with two HMI Recognition Awards.
The awards are the Innovative School Lunch Makeover Award and the Innovation in Nutrition Education Award. Both are tied to measurable progress against USDA's updated nutrition standards.
Three initiatives, paid for by one HMI grant
Watertown used its Healthy Meals Incentives grant for three concrete moves:
- Hiring a Nutrition Education Coordinator to develop curriculum, run taste testings, and engage with students and the broader school community.
- Expanding the district's culinary garden, which now delivers hands-on learning opportunities and supplies herbs to the meal program.
- Adding a full salad bar at the middle and high schools, giving students a station where they can build their own plates.
Each one of those stands on its own. Run together, they reinforce each other — the garden feeds the tastings, the tastings feed the menu, the salad bar gives students a place to use what they learned.
Food Service Director's take on what changed
Emily Doering, MS, RD, the district's Food Service Director, points to the salad bars as the most visible shift in student behavior. Students queue up for them. The cafeteria starts to feel like a place where students are making nutritional decisions instead of receiving them.
On the education side, the new Nutrition Education Coordinator didn't just teach — she built curricula, hosted tastings, promoted new menu options, and worked directly with the school community. That's what turns a one-time initiative into an ongoing program.
The culinary garden as classroom
The expanded garden provides two different kinds of value. It's an outdoor classroom where students get hands-on experience with food production. And it's a working supply of herbs for school meals — a small but symbolically important ingredient pipeline that ties the cafeteria to something students can point to and say "I grew that."