Family Dining

Lunch at Tuxedo Park School is an important time for students to feed their bodies and for the community to feed itself by connecting over a shared meal. Students sit at a new table each month with a group of students spanning the age ranges of their division. It is a time in which students can learn and practice conversational skills and table manners. During lunch, children do more than eat food; they deepen existing relationships and build new ones with faculty and with other students in their division. Faculty members encourage students to eat enough food to sustain their learning and activity through the remainder of the day and to make healthy, balanced choices for their plates. 

• Each lunch begins with a song, moment of silence, or thought-provoking quote before students take their seats.
• Once seated, students must wait politely for the adult at the table to give direction about how food will be served and turns taken for trips to the salad bar.
• There are no more than two students up from the table at a given time.
• Students will politely request to leave the dining table for bathroom visits.

It is important that all students have the chance to complete a variety of jobs during their month at a different table. Students will enjoy some jobs more than others. The emphasis on contributing to the community and experiencing different tasks for doing so is an important part of being a responsible citizen at TPS. The teacher at each table will assign jobs to students on a rotating daily basis. Examples of jobs are collecting plates and returning them to the kitchen for cleaning, collecting dessert, and sponging the table.

Consistent and thoughtful faculty supervision and presence are the cornerstones for the success of our Family Dining Program. Students need the gentle, warm reminders and modeling of faculty to practice their manners and quality conversation skills. 

Faculty model making good choices at lunch. If a faculty member notices that a child is struggling with food choices, they seek out the guidance of the homeroom teacher/advisor so that the student can be supported in gaining the nutrition needed. Our goals are:

• Students eat what they need to sustain energy throughout the day, which makes them most available to learn.
• Faculty model and encourage the sampling of the daily vegetable as well as a piece of fruit.
• Faculty encourage students who have had seconds of the main course and are still hungry to try soup or options on the salad bar.
• Students should not leave the lunch period still hungry, so it is important for the teacher at the table to check in with each student.