Morgan Rees ‘21, Morgan Bramwell ‘21:
The construction plan featuring an open cafeteria space and the all-inclusive food plan for EA’s dining services have been confirmed for the 2018-2019 school year.
The construction of the dining hall was funded by a generous donation from the alumni association to improve the campus. Dr. TJ Locke, Head of School, says, “We felt this was the most pressing need for space,” and decided with a number of people to renovate the cafeteria.
When the cafeteria was originally built, it allowed space for fewer than 270 children, which is now inadequate even for Middle School. Thus, the new construction will make the floor plan more dynamic and open so there is more room for both Middle and Upper schools in the same space. The new plan will add 80 seats.
Mike Letts, head of Upper School, adds, “The plans as they are now will have an extra area that comes off the Upper/Middle school cafeteria area close to the bus circle. This will allow us to close that section off with doors so if we wanted to have a special luncheon for kids or alumni or special events then we would have a space for that.” Removal of the cashiers will allow for an open kitchen space for students to pick up food. The new construction plan also includes expanding the Lower School side towards the student parking lot, which will allow more than one grade to eat at a time.
As for the Canteen, they are keeping the one location in the Athletic Center for students during Domino block and sports, but are also adding a new space. Mark Notaro, Director of Operations, explains their ideas for the Box office: “So the one thing we’re looking at right now is the Box office, in front of the theater, turning that into a coffee and smoothie bar, but we would also have some food available: it would be more specialized things we talked about (referring to honest teas and bags of chips) and possibly some more specialized food will be available there and the food would be to purchase. However, it would be separate from the other food plan.”
If executed, this would be available to all students throughout the day. Notaro also adds, “That space will still be the Box office during the theater productions when they take place but as of right now when no show is taking place it’s only used for storage. They’ll still be able to use it, and during intermission, rather than buying and setting up a table out in front of the theater, they’ll be able to use that and serve it from there.” This takes advantage of space in the ticket office only used for storage, and offers a variety of foods to the students. The removal of cashiers also results in a new payment method, affecting all the students at EA.
The all-inclusive meal plan will be initiated at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year. The new food plan is a $1,250 addition to the original tuition, and it is not optional. Notaro says, “We’ve done some calculations that the cost of going to buy food versus to prepare lunch at home and bring it and the amount of meals this food plan roughly pays for plus the snack fee that’s included-and that’s all in that number- comes down to that if someone brings a lunch four days a week, it ends up being pretty similar cost wise so those kids who buy their lunches.” The canteens however, are not included in the food plan addition, so buying anything at the Canteen is an added fee.
Bringing in an outside company helped the group at EA in charge of this plan see the benefits of a new food plan with possibly more nutritious and healthy food for the students as well as more caution for people with allergies.
Tommy Craig ‘19 says, “I think it’s already healthy with the salad bar, deli line, and some of the lunches of the day are pretty healthy, but you shouldn’t take away the unhealthy stuff like cookies and muffins and pizza because everyone loves that food.”
Locke said, “I have to make a decision that’s best for the whole school, so I think some of them (families whose students bring lunches) may be a little more upset, but I think when they see what we’re going to do they’re going to be more excited about the different food options. I think you’ll save money and trouble by not packing lunch, by using our lunch. I think over time people will get really excited about it, but I recognize that not everyone is going to be happy about it.”