Millbrook School is responsible for both nourishing and nurturing its mostly residential population. Purchased from local sources, our food is as wholesome and fresh as possible, made from the purest, least processed ingredients, for the purpose of instilling healthy eating habits.

Millbrook’s Casertano Dining Hall has made great strides in supporting one of our core values, environmental stewardship. Following are some examples of these achievements:

  • On average, Casertano Dining Hall contributes 44 pounds a day to our in-house compost program. During large events requiring use of disposables, we compost everything except animal products resulting in less than 1 bag of “trash” for a meal serving over 450 guests.
  • We use Hudson Valley Fresh for all our milk. They are an organic and hormone-free Local Dairy Co-operative of farmers from the local area. One such farm is less than 1 mile away from campus.
  • We are using two local produce distributors to maximize local and organic choices. Nearly all of our apples are grown in the Hudson Valley.
  • We have removed all serving trays from the dining hall as of August 2008. Tray-less dining reduces food waste by 25-30%, saves energy, water and cleaning chemicals.
  • All our paper products are fully compostable and made from post consumer recycled materials, including our dining hall napkins.
  • We have reduced the number of vendors visiting our campus each week by 1/3. This has been accomplished by making nearly everything in-house, including bread and desserts. The bread and desserts we do purchase all come from two nearby bakeries. 
  • All fish served has been approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium as safe for us and the oceans.
  • We purchase all coffee from Irving Farm Coffee in nearby Millerton, New York.


Food Services Director Jon Petrie

Jon Petrie is our food service director and an employee of ARAMARK Food and Support Services. In addition to running the dining hall, he works with an organized dining hall committee made up of a representative group of students and faculty. We appreciate ongoing opportunities to both learn and teach about the foods we eat, so the committee was formed partly to educate and communicate, partly to recommend, and partly to generate ideas for breaking up the monotony that can sometimes occur within an ongoing menu plan. The dining hall committee also comes up with themes or different approaches to meals such as Passover and Earth Day, for example.
131 Millbrook School Road, Millbrook, NY 12545
T. (845) 677.8261  |   F. (845) 677.8598