Sharing a Meal Creates a Space for Connection and Community | Recipe: Morning Glory Muffins for Sharing

Every morning, students in Marin Waldorf School’s preschool and kindergarten gather around wooden picnic tables to share a warm snack with their classmates. From oatmeal to honey buns, snacks are made from scratch in the classroom and they are always served with just a touch of ceremony: There are fresh flowers on the table, real plates and silverware to eat with, and cloth placemats for each child. The children wash their hands, take their place around the table, and wait to eat until teachers and students are served. Everyone joins hands to sing a song of gratitude—and then it’s time to eat!

There are many reasons our teachers take care to create this shared moment every day. Sitting around the table together, we learn the importance of courtesy, sharing, and kindness. We learn to slow down and replenish our bodies with healthy foods after a morning of play. Snacks even provide a means of establishing a predictable weekly routine in our preschool and kindergarten, as we learn to recognize the days of the week by the food we share at school: Monday is “rice and beans day,” Tuesday is “oatmeal day,” and so on.

But snacks are more than that. Whether it’s a special occasion or an everyday event, sharing a meal creates a space for connection and community between people. In fact, researchers at the University of Oxford found that “communal eating increases social bonding and feelings of wellbeing, and enhances one’s sense of contentedness and embedding within the community.” Other research has shown that people who eat together eat more nutritious food!

It’s easy to see all the comfort and bonding of a shared meal in our early childhood classrooms. You can see the joy in their faces as children prepare the table. You can sense the comfort they feel when eating something nourishing. Even picky eaters come back for seconds (and thirds) of a favorite morning snack! And, on chilly autumn mornings, the smell of warm soup or baking whole-grain muffins makes our classrooms feel like home.

Can you picture your child in this warm environment? If so, we invite you to come visit Marin Waldorf School & experience preschool and kindergarten snack time in person at one of our upcoming small group tour dates: Oct. 27, 28 & Nov. 2, 3, 10, 11.

To share a little slice of our morning snack with you, we asked our teachers to give us a favorite recipe from the classroom. Slightly sweet from the addition of maple syrup and lightly spiced with vanilla and cinnamon, these millet muffins from the Morning Glory Kindergarten use three types of flour, making them toothsome and nutritious. Enjoy!

Morning Glory Millet Muffins

Note: This recipe is made for sharing! Following the measurements given here, you can feed a kindergarten classroom. So bring these muffins to share at a potluck or party, or tuck some away in a freezer bag for later.