Hopkins Hill students push 'Epic Beef Stew' onto Coventry lunch menu after taste test

Fifth-grade students at Hopkins Hill Elementary presented results of a Students Take Charge curriculum to the Coventry School Committee and persuaded school food-service managers to add a student‑selected recipe to the district menu.

The students told the committee they evaluated fruits and vegetables offered in the cafeteria, tested recipes and then ran a school‑wide taste test. “We worked in small groups to evaluate fruits and vegetables served in the cafeteria, and we chose our favorite fruits and vegetables,” read a letter delivered by the students. After the taste test the student body voted 89‑yes to 33‑no to add what they called “Epic Beef Stew” to the cafeteria menu.

Why it matters: the Students Take Charge program aims to increase student engagement with school food, bring fresh local produce into school meals and raise participation in the lunch program, which district and Sodexo managers said could improve nutrition and participation rates.

Farm Fresh Rhode Island lead educator Mabel Schlenker described the classroom work and the taste‑test process and brought three Hopkins Hill students to the committee to present their findings and promotional posters made for the taste event. “We submitted tasty recipes featuring local seasonal produce. After a classroom taste test, we voted to share Epic Beef Stew with our whole school,” Schlenker said.

Alana Konka, general manager for Sodexo’s Coventry contract, said the stew was prepared by the district high‑school chef for the taste event using produce from Farm Fresh Rhode Island and Schartner Farms. Konka told the committee the vendor will add the recipe to the fall menu and noted a cost adaptation: “If you notice, there are little meatballs in there instead of, like, a stew beef. The stew beef was very expensive, so we got creative with the little meatballs, and it seems like the kids really liked those. And we were able to do a gluten free meatball.”

Committee members praised the collaboration. Superintendent Don Cowart described the initiative as a model of local partners, food service and students working together. Committee vice chair Anna Isabel Dos Reis Couto sampled the stew during the meeting and called it “perfect.”

District staff said they will share the Epic Beef Stew recipe with families and are developing a toolkit so other schools in the district can run the Students Take Charge curriculum next year. Sodexo said, if elementary response mirrors the Hopkins Hill result, the vendor will scale the dish into middle and high school menus as well.

Additional details: students reported favorite vegetables (corn, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, broccoli) and fruits (apples, strawberries, oranges, watermelon). The class identified taste as the chief barrier to eating fruits and vegetables and recommended seasoning, dips and “hiding” vegetables in recipes as solutions. The student recipe author was named Devin; the graduating fifth‑grade class led the promotion and sampling at Hopkins Hill.

The committee did not take a formal board vote on the menu change; Sodexo and school staff said they will add the stew administratively and test expansion at other schools in the fall.