The Walpole High School cafeteria has been in a state of transition during the past several months, provoking tremendous reaction to extensive radical changes being implemented, both noticeable and behind-the-scenes. New Walpole School Food Service Director Maria Hall was hired in January and has been working during the past several months to adjust the food service with new menu items and new financial strategies. The changes she has implemented to the lunches have generated extensive reaction, both positive and negative, but Hall said the changes are intended to help her gauge what students want to eat and how she can make the improve the lunch service as a whole.
During the past few months, Hall has visited every school cafeteria to work hands-on with workers doing a needs assessment, looking to find out what each school cafeteria is doing well, what each might be doing poorly, and whether there were opportunities for streamlining, consolidation, and district-wide sharing of ideas in the lunch service. Hall said the school visits gave her a chance to consider ideas for improvements.
The lunch service has long struggled to cope with rising costs and little increases in student customers. Lunch prices have been raised frequently during the past several years by the Walpole School Committee in an attempt to generate additional revenue, and the Cafeteria Director position that Hall now fills has actually been vacant for months. Hall has extensive experience in business, and said her philosophy from a fiscal standpoint is to start listening to what students want to eat, and working to bring prices down and food quality up so that more students will purchase the school’s food. “We need to look at students as customers,” Hall said. She said she is concerned that only 40% of students currently purchase lunch, and wants to increase that number. Hall is open to circulating a survey in order to gauge students’ interests in other menu items and offering food they want at a price that is reasonable.
Hall, who is also a registered dietitian, is hoping new lunch items and a greater array of offerings might help attract more students. For example, the high school cafeteria has been offering light breakfast items during PLC days this year, but Hall is exploring offering breakfast on a daily basis to students who come to school early. Students said they might be willing to take advantage of such offers. “I guess if I wake up late, and if I’m running late, maybe I will get something,” freshman Bobby Ross said. Junior David Nguyen said he thought breakfast would surely bring in more students if the items were reasonable and the pricing was fair. “I feel like more kids would come and get the breakfast,” Nguyen said. Hall also wants to install a slush machine at the high school, change the pizzas, expand the variety of salads, and explore offering radical new lunches like sushi.
Outside of expanding meals, Hall said lowering the prices may be another goal for the future to lure more students. Indeed, many students think the lunches are too costly. “I think they are overpriced,” junior Tom Quintanilla, said of the lunches. Nguyen, on the other hand, said some items are more fairly priced than others. “Some things are worth your money,” he said, noting he often purchases wraps and felt he usually gets his money’s worth from them.
Another important element of bringing in more customers, according to Hall, is simple marketing. She is already drawing on her business background to market the cafeteria more effectively to students. For example, the high school cafeteria no longer gives out plain milk cartons, but instead gives out plastic bottles that are bigger and more appealing, in an effort to attract students. Sure enough, students appear to be liking the new containers, as milk sales have already increased. “I like the new milk in the bottles,” Ross said. Hall said the new bottles not only have two ounces more milk than previous containers, but are also recyclable.
All the same, her changes have come with a degree of controversy. For example, lunch staff have been used to serving the same lunches the same way consistently for years, and as with any change, Hall said the new recipes are difficult for lunch service employees to adjust to. The changes have also gotten mixed reactions from the student body. For instance, Ross, who purchases lunch every day, said he is not a fan of the new lunches. “I think they are not as good as they used to be,” he said. In addition, when buffalo chicken was taken off the menu, she said a lot of students were particularly vocal about the decision. “I miss the buffalo chicken on Tuesdays,” Nguyen said. But Hall said she has no plans to take away buffalo chicken permanently, and stressed the change was made because she wanted to use up the other lunch items the food service has been storing. “Buffalo chicken is here to stay,” she said. For the future, Hall said she may change the buffalo chicken recipe, but made very clear she will not take it off the menu forever.
