As students rolled into the cafeteria for lunch on the first day of school they were surprised to be welcomed by myriad new choices with food court-like signage: World Market, La Cuchina, Miss Ruby’s Grill, Coyote Grill, Real Meal Express and Healthy Harvest. From nachos and burrito bowls to smoothies and fruity parfaits, the new cafeteria options have made many students happy, but have brought many challenges for the cafeteria workers.
The many changes came with Whitson’s, the district’s new food service provider. Implementing and drafting a new food service in the Northborough-Southborough school district has been in the works since COVID-19, when free meals were originally established. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Keith Lavoie has played a key role in this process and believes that once free meals were established, some changes were necessary.
“When the free meals started to really take off…we had to look at it a little differently to see if we could continue to operate in the self-operating model,” Lavoie said. “What a lot of school districts do is they contract with a food services management company, and in that contract, you can decide how much of it remains self-operation and how much you turn over to the company to provide that service.”
The decision to work with Whitson’s brought on staff member Whitson’s food service director Matt Delaney, who works behind the scenes with all Northborough-Southborough school cafeterias, but his home base is at ARHS.
“I oversee the menus’ production, and the movement of food within the towns to make sure to have plenty of food and good options to run with,” Delaney said.
Under the National School Lunch Program, schools must meet strict nutrition standards, including reduced sodium and whole-grain products, all of which Whitson’s helps the cafeteria achieve.
“We focus a lot on fresh fruits and vegetables,” Delaney said. “It’s not just cucumbers all the time, or grapes all the time. We try to put out at least four to five different kinds of fruits and vegetables, and it doesn’t matter if it’s an elementary school, middle school, or high school; all of the schools have those kinds of choices.”
Students have expressed their appreciation for the wider variety of choices and the many fresh fruits and vegetables.
“I think there is a big variety of different foods and I think they taste pretty good,” freshman Austin Wu said.
Principal Sean Bevan believes having a new vendor brings more opportunities to the table.
“Sometimes, going to outside vendors does provide a new perspective on what’s available, and with outside vendors, sometimes they have a supply chain or practices that aren’t accessible for a smaller operation that is done internally,” Bevan said.
Food Services manager Gina Sae So, who joined the cafeteria staff in January, has extensive experience in the field, and her opinion was heavily weighed in selecting Whitson’s as the new food provider.
“I think [Whitson’s] was chosen because it is a more local vendor, which means you have more resources for products,” Sae So said. “They are also a company that promotes creativity. So it was something that was definitely welcomed within the district.”
Sae So oversees the daily operations in the kitchen and manages placing orders for inventory, makes sure the staff is knowledgeable and ensures everything runs smoothly. She acknowledges that some challenges arose during the transition at the start of the school year.
“It has been challenging,” Sae So said. “There are a lot more stations than last year, there is a lot more product coming in; therefore, there are a lot more recipes, and we do only have so many [cafeteria workers]. So, there are daily challenges. Our number one goal is to feed the kids and do our best, just like we were doing prior to Whitson’s.”
Although the daily challenges have been numerous, especially with large changes and a small staff, Sae So understands that this process is a learning curve.
“There are always challenges with something new, and it will take time to get into a routine, especially since a lot of the staff have been here for 10 or 20-plus years,” Sae So said. “So far, we are making it work, and we hope the kids are enjoying it.”
Lavoie also recognizes the challenge of this transition, especially for Sae So, as a newer Food Services Manager at Algonquin.
“Gina came in and learned a new job under the self-operating system, and has had to transition to the food services management company,” Lavoie said. “I give her a lot of credit; she’s still learning her job, and now she’s got to change how it’s being done, and she’s done so with a lot of professionalism.”
In the past two years, both the food service manager and the food vendors have changed, bringing new ideas, opportunities and perspectives to the cafeteria team.
In order to prepare the staff for this transition, the district held two days of training before the school year began. One covered state-mandated topics, like food safety and handwashing, and the other featured a Whitson’s chef demonstrating menu items.
However, cafeteria staff member Betsy Swallow noted that their initial training wasn’t as helpful as Whitson’s might have hoped, and not as extensive as the staff may have needed, leaving the staff confused.
“We had some training,” Swallow said. “It wasn’t very detailed. We get detailed menus, we get recipes for everything new that we’re doing, but other than that, training was minimal.”
Swallow also noted that the operations of the cafeteria and the roles of individual cafeteria workers have changed significantly with the new food provider.
“It’s changed a lot; everybody’s job has changed,” Swallow said.
One of the many obstacles the cafeteria is facing is the deficiency of staff paired with the increase in lunch options. The cafeteria is now serving the rotating main lunch, sandwiches, salads, nachos, pizza, parfaits and smoothies, which is much more varied than the options in the past.
“[We have] so many different options with, I believe, an increase in staff of one,” Swallow said. “We were told we would have more staff, but that has not happened.”
Although the increase of lunch options has added stress to the cafeteria workers, the new variety of options have been popular choices among students, as evidenced by the longer lunch lines and more students choosing to eat school lunch.
“I will eat school lunch more often because there are more options,” senior Abbe Or said. “I really like the chicken sandwiches and also the strawberry mango smoothie.”
Junior Mariana Lucchese agrees.
“I will eat it more often because I’ve always gotten lunch, but I love the variety this year,” Lucchese said.
However, with the increased popularity of school lunch has led to another problem: certain food options run out by the time third lunch comes around. Bevan believes this is just a learning curve issue, with the staff still adjusting to student demands.
“We want to make sure every kid who wants to buy lunch or get a lunch is able to do that,” Bevan said.
Like Bevan, Sae So believes that with time, the menu issues will smooth themselves out with time and experience.
“With so many new choices daily, it’s hard to anticipate what the kids are going to gravitate towards,” Sae So said in October. “[The menu] varies so much, so it’s just trying to get into a rhythm of understanding. It’s only been a month, so I think that will kind of play itself out once we see what the kids are going towards more.”
Especially at the beginning of the school year, there was increased food waste as the cafeteria staff tried to determine how much of each menu offering to prepare.
“I think we still try to make sure we’re only putting out enough food for the day, to eliminate any type of waste,” Sae So said. “However, with there being so many different choices, we are seeing a little bit more waste than last year, especially in regards to the fresh product.”
Although there have been challenges, Sae So and the cafeteria staff hope students and faculty can understand the hard work they are doing behind the scenes.
“I hope faculty and staff can see the efforts that my team and myself are still trying to uphold for not only the school, but the district,” Sae So said. “We still have high standards for food quality and safety, and making sure that at the end of the day that the students are enjoying the food and they have a healthy meal.”
English teacher John Frederick often buys school lunch and sees the upgrade as a change with both positives and negatives.
“I think for the consumer, it’s really good, the changes are really good [with] the choices,” Frederick said. “But I do imagine on the other end of it there’s a lot more work involved with the cafeteria staff, so I’d hate to ignore the burden that falls on them if in fact they are working more.”
Looking ahead, Delaney’s focus is on both food quality and efficiency, noting the challenge that students have just 30 minutes for lunch.
“We have to focus on the food and on the speed,” Delaney said. “[30 minutes] is a good amount of time to wait for the thing you want, check out, eat and socialize. In my opinion, having that balance is really beneficial for learning.”
Overall, his goal is to build a strong team and serve meals that make students satisfied and energized.
“We’re trying lots of different things, and I think we’ll find that sweet area where everybody is just loving it,” Delaney said.
