Students Explore Food Insecurity with Alum and Chef

A group of Northfield Mount Hermon students recently had the opportunity to connect what they’re learning in class about the science of agriculture with the issue of food insecurity, thanks to a visit from an alum who works in the field.

Kate Leversee ’03 is director of operations at The Community Kitchen, a nonprofit based in Keene, New Hampshire. The organization distributes groceries through an on-site and a mobile food pantry and provides hot meals five evenings a week. It also takes part in a gleaning program that provides fresh produce to guests. In 2024, The Community Kitchen served 32,500 hot meals and distributed 40,946 boxes of food, which provided 395,324 meals. 

On her visit to NMH, Leversee spent time with students in the interdisciplinary Farm Semester program, which combines two courses, the Science of Farming and Reading and Writing the Land, with hands-on experience on the campus farm. She was accompanied by chef Anthony Marshall, manager of The Community Kitchen’s hot meals program. 

In a side room of Alumni Hall, the visitors met with students to talk about their work while Marshall gave a cooking demonstration, preparing two of what he described as “basic, baseline nutritious meals”: an omelette and a protein- and vegetable-packed ramen bowl. “Food is my love language,” Marshall said, and it’s one he gets to speak often, feeding his six kids.

The students had read about The Community Kitchen before the visit and came prepared with questions: about the history of the program, the challenges of the work, the role of volunteers in feeding more than 600 guests every week. They also asked how Marshall decides what to cook every day. The Community Kitchen, Leversee explained, relies on rescued food donated by supermarkets as well as its gleaning program; Marshall then turns to his culinary creativity and vast collection of cookbooks to come up with nutritious meals based on that day’s ingredients.  

Leversee joined The Community Kitchen in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, she explained, demand for its services was high, but government food assistance had also increased. While the government support has dropped, the need for The Community Kitchen’s services continues to grow each year, in part because New Hampshire has an older population with many residents living on a fixed income. The organization, meanwhile, has maxed out its space, with no room to grow, added Leversee, who said she dreams of an off-site warehouse for its food.

“It was wonderful to be back at NMH, especially after having not visited in quite some time. Campus looks great!” Leversee said after the class. “It was an honor to be asked to share with a group of curious and thoughtful 12th-graders around the topics of nutrition and food insecurity. It felt more like a conversation than a presentation.
 
“These students already understood that rural life can make accessing healthy food a real challenge,” she continued. “They’d done their homework — literally — thinking about their favorite meals, researching how to build nutritious, budget-friendly meals, and they seemed to enjoy watching the cooking demo from Chef Anthony, seeing how simple ingredients can become something delicious and nourishing.

“I felt they saw not just the problem, but understood the power of community solutions: how free hot meals, a full grocery and fresh pantry, and Mobile Pantry outreach programs can make a difference,” Leversee said. “I hope that when students begin to see and understand early, they are more likely to be engaged, compassionate people.”

The visit helped students understand what the concepts they study in class mean for real people and communities, said science teacher Clare Knowlton, who co-teaches the Farm Semester with English teacher Bryon Williams. “Kate and Anthony's visit demonstrated to the students what it looks like to live food systems work as your career,” Knowlton said. “It's one thing to discuss hunger in an abstract, academic sense, but to hear from folks who feed their community every single day is really meaningful. 

“For a class focused on the cycles and techniques of agriculture, I wanted us to begin with an exploration of why growing food matters in the first place: It nourishes our individual bodies, supports the local ecosystems, and builds the human community,” she added. “I think Kate and Anthony did an amazing job bringing their own humanity and purpose into focus for our class.”

Photos: Top: Sampling food after the cooking demonstration.
Bottom: Teachers Bryon Williams and Clare Knowlton, Kate Leversee '03, Anthony Marshall
Photos by Harry van Baaren