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School Stories: What's for lunch?

"Taco Tuesday" at Putney Central School offers beef tacos with New England beef, Cabot sour cream, Thomas Dairy milk, salad with garbanzo beans, brown rice, carrots and celery sticks.
Vermont Agency of Education
/
Courtesy
A school meal at Putney Central School is pictured in 2019.

When we talk about schools, we usually focus on what happens inside the classroom, but what happens in the cafeteria also plays an important role in learning.

In the second installment of our fall series School Stories, we’re talking school meals. Food services coordinators Susan Grabowski of the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union and Kathy Alexander of the Mount Abe and Addison Northwest school districts discuss menus, how federal funding cuts could affect school meals and the pros and cons of following the USDA’s rules.

We'll also hear from a school district in southern Vermont, where a team of Afghan refugees cook up food in the cafeteria, including halal meals for Muslim and vegetarian students.

Broadcast live on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

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Mikaela Lefrak is the host and senior producer of Vermont Edition. Her stories have aired nationally on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Marketplace, The World and Here & Now. A seasoned local reporter, Mikaela has won two regional Edward R. Murrow awards and a Public Media Journalists Association award for her work.
Jon has spent his entire adult life working in broadcast journalism. He began his career in Baltimore at WYPR, and has since been a producer for WHYY, Vox, The Majority Report with Sam Seder, and The Talkhouse. Jon is a lifelong recording artist whose projects include Repelican, The Art Department, and Dungeonesse. He lives with his wife in Panton, Vermont.