When Students Get Hungry for Change: Three Paths Through Our Food System

By Mike Loots, Wellness Teacher, Woodstock Union Middle High School

This past semester, my middle school wellness students proved something I've long believed: kids are awesome, and they want to do good. If you give them tools, they'll take those tools and do what they can with them.

After bringing in local farmers and diving deep into food systems education, I challenged my students: "Where do you have agency to affect a piece of this—at your home, at school, or in our community?"

What happened next reminded me why this approach works better than any worksheet.

Three Groups, Three Solutions

My role quickly shifted from lecturer to facilitator. I found myself connecting students with cafeteria staff, local farmers, and community partners as they tackled problems I hadn't even considered.

The Food Rescue Team saw opportunity in waste: leftover food from community drop-off events could address both food insecurity and waste. These seventh-graders designed menus using whatever was left over—turnips, lettuce, bread. They researched recipes, coordinated with Meals on Wheels, and pulled it off.

When they realized the project needed more time than they had available, they reflected honestly about sustainability and planning. That's the kind of authentic assessment you can't get from a test.

The Farm-to-School Cooking Group developed their idea through research (including asking AI for suggestions) and secured impressive donations: 20 pounds of beef from Cloudland Farms, garlic from Cedar Circle. They made hundreds of tortillas from scratch and taught their classmates about local sourcing.

"I got a better relationship with them when we were cooking together," one student told me. That's what happens when you create space for authentic collaboration around meaningful work.

The Composting Team started with a waste audit that revealed two pounds of plastic alongside discarded lunches. They built a compost catch system, then researched compostable plastic alternatives.

Here's where it got really interesting. After weeks of research, they discovered that many compostable plastics break down into PFAS and other forever chemicals. Initially devastated by this "failure," they learned that this is exactly how the scientific process works—and pivoted to examining why students weren't using existing metal utensils.

Why This Works for Teachers

At this age, students have just enough life experience to tackle real problems but need scaffolding to succeed. The key is preparation—we'd been building toward this complexity since August through smaller collaborative challenges.

For fellow teachers wondering about feasibility: students rose to meet authentic communication demands with cafeteria staff, farmers, and community organizations. They developed project management skills, scientific thinking, and systems awareness that no textbook could teach.

One student captured why this matters: "Our school needs more interactive learning instead of just staring at a screen... Some kids need to be doing something to understand what is happening."

The Ripple Effects

Several groups continue working on their projects months later, integrating material from other classes and maintaining community relationships. This is what happens when assignments connect to real needs—learning doesn't stop at the classroom door.

For administrators concerned about standards: this approach met all our wellness curriculum requirements while developing the critical thinking, communication, and civic engagement skills students actually need.

These three groups took different paths through our food system, but all learned they have power to create change. In a world where young people often feel overwhelmed by systemic problems, that's exactly the mindset we need to cultivate.

The best part? Watching students discover their own capacity to make a difference has been the highlight of my teaching year.

Mike Loots, Wellness Teacher

Woodstock Union Middle High School

Click to watch a video to hear Mike and his students share project highlights.