Food is instrumental to the functioning of the brain because it needs the nourishment to focus and do work. In fact, despite all this, not every kid in America has easy access to food that gives them the nutrition to play sports or even do well in school. For some of us, it’s an easy walk to our fridge; for others, it’s a struggle.
With changes due to coronavirus, the new after school lunch program provides a much-needed meal for students. Sage introduced this program to supply an additional meal for students. They added these meals due to the disadvantages of the new hybrid schedule, which doesn’t allow students to receive meals every day.
The Program
Mr. Tellini, the headmaster of our Sage Dining program, says “our goal for the menu was to provide simple, straightforward meal options that could be either reheated at home and that hold well in the refrigerator or a popular cold cut sandwich. We also wanted to provide as much variety as possible without having too much waste if students elected not to pick up a lunch. With that being said, we strived to make the daily option(s) something that we thought would be popular to the majority.” Here, Mr. Tellini describes the thought process that goes into the daily selection for the after school lunch. The meals need enjoyment right after school, after reheating it, or after refrigeration.
Typically, students receive a cold cut, reheatable sandwich, chips, fruit, and sometimes a cookie to take home with them after school. Put on tables in paper bags, the lunches can have different sandwich types such as ham & cheese, turkey & cheese, or barbecue chicken. Sage members typically have to monitor the lunches to make sure each student gets the same basic things in their lunch. Additionally, students often search for lunches specifically with cookies — what can you expect?— despite cookies not being an instrumental to a student’s health, which makes Sage members have to reorganize them. Extra fruit is also available at the fruit stands for people who need it. It’s a tall task to oversee and manage this new program, but they are handling it very well.
Student Reception
The after school lunch program is widely popular among students, especially considering how students rush immediately into the cafeteria right after school.
For example, Preston Parrish (’22) said he loves the lunch because he “usually eats dinner pretty late so it is a good snack for in between.”
Sky Tschurr (’22) said, “the after school lunch program is awesome” and that he “loves their sandwiches, especially the barbecue ones.” It seems like the students appreciate the after school lunches. A good thing too, as it is a lot of extra work for Sage. They are so good that a few just can’t wait and eat them once they’ve been handed out.
The Work
Mr. Tellini added, “It was definitely a challenge to incorporate a third meal on top of breakfast and lunch service. For the after school lunch program, it required us to bring in two extra team members just to handle the food prep behind this menu. Then additionally, to assemble the bags for you guys it takes our entire team of 15 team members to knock it out as quickly as possible.”
Make sure you guys make the most out of the after school lunch program, because Sage is working hard to make the meals for us!
For more updates on Sage Dining, make sure to turn into The Roundup!
