Food Services
NEARI Meals
NEARI is proud to produce school breakfast and lunch in-house to ensure freshly prepared nutritious meals available to all students at no charge. Our menu incorporates scratch-cooked, local products as often as possible. Please check the link below for more information about Massachusetts’ universal free meals program and NEARI’s non-discrimination policy.
Meal modification policy
NEARI is happy to accommodate students who have food allergies and medical conditions that require a modification to their meals. If you would like your child to receive meal accommodations for food allergies or a medical condition impacting the diet, including food sensitivities or aversions related to any medical condition or disability, please complete the linked meal modification form and submit it to the office, our school nurse, or food service director.
This form must be signed by your child’s medical provider in order for us to make modifications to the meal.
You may also have your child’s medical provider submit a statement that must include the following information:
• Information about the child’s impairment that is sufficient for understanding how it restricts the child’s diet,
• An explanation of what must be done to accommodate the child’s disability, and
• If appropriate, the food(s) to be omitted, texture modifications, and recommended substitutions.
If you have any questions about this policy, or would like further information or to discuss your child’s meal modifications, please contact NEARI’s food service director, Donald French, dfrench@neari.com , school nurse Aimee Grover Aimee Grover <abgrover@neari.com> or your child’s case manager at any time.
Wellness committee
All members of the NEARI community, including staff, students, parents, and board members are invited to join NEARI’s newly reconstituted wellness committee. We are in the process of assessing and rewriting NEARI’s current wellness policy (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QDeenjHG5wtd_gyLJ0CKn_cVJEqvLHbp0BMC7kWbhKY/edit?tab=t.0
to better align with federal and state wellness policy requirements. We are using a tool called the wellsat (https://www.wellsat.org) to evaluate and improve our policy.
All are welcome to join us at our next meeting, May 14, 2026 at 3pm. Please contact committee chair, Donald French dfrench@neari.com for more information or if you would like to join us via zoom. Linked below are NEARI’s current wellness policy, the results thus far of our policy assessment, meeting minutes, and a schedule of upcoming committee meetings.