WOODBURY – Kindergarten and first grade students, with their sixth grade buddies at Woodbury Elementary School, prepared and served an on-campus Hibernation Feast to over 100 of their families, teachers and community members, last Tuesday, Nov. 18.
photo by Lisa Stinson
The Woodbury Bears’ meal was the culmination of a farm-to-fork and restaurant business unit conceived by sixth grade teacher Lindsey Benton and K-1 teacher Catherine Siefert, which brought WCAX to town.
Nina Livellara, the chef and owner of Baker’s Bench in Woodbury helped students prepare the meal, teaching them to build a salad by adding one ingredient at a time, almost like “constructing a layer cake,” she said.
Guests arrived to find tables set and decorated with miniature pumpkins.
photo by Lisa Stinson
The meal, served buffet style, included dishes prepared by the students, with Sunshine Soup with root veggies from Pete’s Greens; Autumn Salad; a Vermont Rice Medley; Braised Beef Short Ribs in Gravy from North Hardwick Farm and Apple Crumble with local apples.
photo by Lisa Stinson
To prepare for their own meal, students visited a monthly community meal at the United Church of Hardwick prepared by Hazen Union School students in Reeve Basom’s Recipe for a Human Connection class, where both the K-1 and sixth grade students interviewed the high school students about how they prepared their meal.
photo by Lisa Stinson
As part of the study, Siefert’s K-1 class visited Sterling College, where they visited and picked vegetables and mushrooms at the farm and joined students there for lunch, learning how the staff there prepared the cafeteria-style meals.
photo by Lisa Stinson
WCAX’s Cat Viglienzoni visited the Washington County town of about 930 people for last week’s “Vermont’s Own” segment, which was broadcast on the following evening’s news. It can be found at wcax.com/2025/11/19/woodbury–elementary–students–transform–school–into–restaurant/.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
