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Being Neighborly | Lasagna, with a dash of learning, at Harbor Montessori

Inside a Montessori school, you will find children in mixed-age classrooms engaged and concentrating on their work. Montessori instruction uses a variety of materials that reinforce the lessons the Montessori guide, or teacher, presents to the children.

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At Harbor Montessori School, you’ll also find students making lasagna after class.

Lasagna Love

In addition to the regular curriculum, guides at Harbor Montessori School present students with information about the importance of caring for themselves, others and the environment. To put that instruction into action, Head of School Aimee Allen invited students to join a Service Learning Club and participate in providing lasagna to people in the area through a global nonprofit called Lasagna Love.

Students at Harbor Montessori School joined the Service Learning Club to make lasagna for the global nonprofit organization Lasagna Love. The service project reinforced the instruction of care for others that is part of the Montessori instruction – care for self, others, and the environment. Photo courtesy of Nikki Hemphill

Anyone can sign up for a lasagna through the Lasagna Love website. Washington Local Leader Justine Drewery pairs that person with the volunteer who lives closest to them. Lasagna Love, founded in 2020 in San Diego, now has 80,000 volunteers in all 50 states, Canada and Australia, Drewery said.

Allen said it seemed like a good service project to reinforce the instruction of caring for others.

“I have done service-learning clubs in the past and wanted to do that again,” Allen said.

Reading, writing and arithmetic … and chopping, stirring and mixing

She invited students to join the club and put out the word to parents that the club needed donated lasagna ingredients.  Thirteen students between the ages of 6 and 12 joined and parents sent in donations.

Students engaged in the after-school club learn in many ways: How to make the lasagna, obviously, but also how to handle a knife, chop an onion, mix, stir, and assemble the ingredients, and more.

Aimee Allen, head of school at Harbor Montessori School, works with the Service Learning Club to make lasagna for the global nonprofit Lasagna Love. Students learn in mixed age classrooms at the school, and 13 students ages 6 to 12 worked together to make 10 lasagnas after school one day a week. Photo courtesy of Nikki Hemphill

“Part of this whole thing was learning time management skills,” Allen said. “Before we get into a project we learn about it, so this time that included food insecurity, and hygiene.”

Once the students learned why they were doing the project and how to do it, Allen said the next step was direct action. And the students were enthusiastic about the service they were providing. So much so that Allen said they want to continue with the volunteer work.

The students signed up for a four-week service. Allen said she delivered 10 lasagnas to neighbors in need who signed up through Lasagna Love. 

Once the students have finished a project, they spend time in reflection, Allen said.

“They had wonderful things to say about the experience and working together, and they remembered the education portion,” Allen said.