Launching Lunch: How Athenian's Meal Plan Adapted To COVID-19

Arguably one of the best things that makes Athenian stand out from other schools is the lunch. So, when Athenian students returned to campus in October 2020 after monthslong closures related to the COVID pandemic, one of the biggest questions about how the school would function in the new “pandemic world” was how the kitchen would serve lunch safely. 

At first, students were sent home before lunchtime, but at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, the kitchen staff was tasked with individually boxing lunches for over 600 kids. Though these safety measures made much of the Athenian community feel more comfortable, many people wistfully long for the pre-pandemic meals—which often included options such as hot soup, a sandwich bar, and other steaming-hot food coming from the kitchen.

With the current system, the kitchen staff is burdened with lots of extra work to provide quality meals for the students and faculty. 

“It takes much longer. We have to start earlier to cook the food because we have to have at least two hours to package everything,” Head Chef Miguel Aguilar said. “That’s the worst thing. We start making lunch around 7:30 and we’re still serving breakfast. We want to get it done by 9:00 so we can start putting everything in boxes at 9:30. That gives us a window of one and a half hours to two hours because we have to have everything ready by 11:30 for the middle school.”

Having to package everything has made pulling lunch together a very time-consuming and stressful endeavor for everyone in the kitchen. In addition, the kitchen staff is forced to restrict the diversity of meal options they provide. 

 “We also have to be very limited with the menu,” Aguilar said. “It’s very hard to give [Athenian students] more choices because we can only put so much in the boxes. Now we have opened the salad bar so that students can now get the choice of two things.”

As the year goes on, the school is doing more and more to give students a more familiar lunch experience. Earlier in the year, students were sent to different areas around the upper school to get their food and found places outside to eat. More recently, indoor dining has resumed.

“Since we have been back in the Main Hall, the food has been better and more like pre-pandemic food,” Miram M. ’24 said. “It’s fresher and warmer.” 

In addition to the quality of food, the number of food options that students are given is increasing.

“I do really like the salads and they’re doing a fantastic job providing vegetarian and non-kosher options, especially in these pandemic times,” Katie C. ’24 said. “I know they’re doing the best with what they have, and I’m very appreciative of that.”

These packaged salads have become loved by many, often more than the hot, boxed meals, because students feel that the packaged salads still provide them with nutritious and high-quality food. Regardless, many students are still hopeful that something resembling the old salad bar will return—largely because of its increased variety in toppings and dressing.

Within the boxes, the kitchen staff are working hard to ensure that students receive a wide range of good food on their plates. 

“I like that there’s work being put into having a selection of food,” Quynh-Anh N. ’24 said. “There are different segments. There’s the main meal and most of the time there are vegetables. The effort is made to incorporate a balanced plate.”

Luckily, it seems that these limitations that come with boxed meals and pre-packaged salads will not last much longer.

“There's, like, a few things that we need to buy, such as more plates, utensils, carts, and bins for dishes,” Bridget Guerra, Athenian Operations Manager, said. “And there’s also the staffing part of it and creating a plan that is still safe for COVID, because things can’t be super simple these days; you have to think about all the different components.”

Athenian is getting ready to move forward to the next phase of their school lunch plan. But this requires hiring more people to carry out jobs such as dishwashing, buying more appliances, and preparing to guarantee that everything runs smoothly. 

“I think what we’re hoping is that in a couple of weeks we’ll have all those things lined up so that when we get back from the break we can start with that,” Guerra said. “It's been hard, because we want to go back to normal and open things up. We’re just not there yet, and we’ve been so good about [staying safe] so far.”