Weekly Message from HOS 2026/01/19-2026/01/23
Dear Keystonians,
Today, a bit of Keystone history. When alumni return, they always say two things: they miss the people who shaped their time here, and they miss the food. Our dining halls are legendary, with a reputation that extends far beyond our campus. I’ve even heard from colleagues in southern China that the word is Keystone has the best school food in the country—perhaps the world. I don’t doubt it.
One feature of our food program that always sparks conversation is what we choose not to eat on Mondays. In my first week as Head of School, a student eagerly emailed to ask if I shared my predecessor’s passion for “Meatless Monday,” hoping to undo the tradition. As someone who has been an on-again, off-again vegetarian, I didn’t see an urgent reason to change anything without understanding the community’s perspective. So I decided to learn more. What I discovered was a perfect example of Keystone in action.
“Meatless Monday” was not an administrative edict. It was the school listening to students and saying “yes.” In 2016, two tenth graders presented at an assembly on the ecological impact of global meat production. Our founding Head of School, Malcolm McKenzie, described their proposal in his weekly letter: In their presentation, our students claimed that it is perfectly possible to eat delicious and healthy vegetable meals. We shall prove them right, and we shall start with our first one before the end of this academic year. Although having an occasional lunch without meat is not going to change the world, it will have an impact on our attitudes, and it will make us think from time to time about giving up some things, and changing some habits, if we want to take our environmental education seriously.
He framed “Ecological Eating”—his preferred term—not as a restriction, but as a mission-driven practice. He connected it directly to our stated goals, writing:
“In the Keystone Mission, a short document that I think about again and again, as we all should, we make reference to our environment twice. We say that one of the skills that our students will learn here is to be ‘stewards of the environment’. And in the paragraph describing our graduates, and what qualities they will possess, we claim that they will have ‘ecological fluency’. This claim is made in the context of saying that we want our graduates to ‘help develop and improve the communities in which they live’.
Over the years, I’ve had many conversations with students about our Monday menu. We’ve also broadened the discussion: what is the best way to promote ecological fluency? Reducing meat is one part. We’ve also invested in reducing sugar and unhealthy oils, and we are determined to decrease food waste. Reducing delivery packaging to campus is another worthy goal.
Our mission charges our graduates to “help develop and improve the communities in which they live.” They must practice that here. So, to our students: the next iteration of Ecological Eating is yours to design. How can we make our food program an even more powerful expression of our mission? I look forward to your proposals and to the dialogue that will shape our community’s next chapter.
It is through these efforts, led by you, that we make Keystone better and better.
Have a great weekend,
Emil
