Pasta bar is a student favorite at Cathedral High - Springfield, Massachusetts - Celebrating 40 Years of School Lunch

Food and Nutrition, Oct, 1986 by Wini Scheffler

Pasta Bar Is A Student Favorite At Cathedral High

When Frances Ziter, food service director of Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, set up a pasta bar in the school dining room, many of her colleagues warned her that the cost would be phenomenal.

"Thanks to donated government commodities, the opposite is true,' she says. "The pasta bar actually helps us stay within our budget and offer a wider variety of foods.'

Cathedral High School is a private school that draws its 2,029 students from 31 towns and cities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Cathedral school food service also handles menu planning, finances, and some food preparation for Our Lady of Hope, an elementary school with an enrollment of 403.

The popular pasta bar is one of the changes that have enabled Ziter and her staff of 23 to achieve a fully self-supporting food service that is popular with students.

"We cater to the tastes of our students just as any restaurant seeks to please its customers,' she says. Ziter pleases her customers by offering foods they like, keeping prices low, and practicing good public relations.

Students offered variety of choices

"If it's meatloaf, it must be Tuesday,' could have been true under the once-traditional cycle menu which Ziter believes is unnecessary and monotonous. Instead of using a fixed and recurring menu, she plans a month's meals with an eye on seasonal purchases, available commodities, and special events.

To satisfy as many tastes as possible, the Cathedral School dining room has four different serving lines. In addition to a standard hot meal, there is a fast food line that features such entrees as hamburgers, hot dogs, cold cut grinders (the New England term for subs), and roast beef and grilled cheese sandwiches. Other options are the salad bar and, on alternating weeks, the pasta or health food bar.

On a typical day recently, students could choose from nine different meals that met the USDA meal pattern, or they could buy items a la carte. The lines moved swiftly, giving diners more time to enjoy their meals in the light and surprisingly quiet dining room.

Sixty-three percent of the students buying lunch chose the USDA meal. Counting those who purchased a la carte items, the kitchen served around 90 percent of the student body.

Menus for the month are posted in each home room. "We want students to be aware of the vairety of choices they have,' says Ziter. "We encourage their ideas, too. Recently, we offered parmesan chicken at the suggestion of a student. When we introduce a new item, the cooks always go out and ask students how they like it.

"Very few people choose the same line every day. Some of the girls who want to lose weight choose salads frequently, and sometimes the coach recommends a light meal for boys who have athletic practice right after lunch. These extra options keep our participation high.'

The pasta bar, introduced 2 years ago, is a favorite choice of many students. Typical entrees served from the hot food cart include macaroni or spaghetti, which students can top with meat or spicy tomato sauce.

The pasta bar is offered only every other week because of the work involved in cooking fresh pasta. Because the timing is precise and the pasta is not overcooked, any leftovers can be used the following day in the salad bar.

Commodities help hold costs down

Federal cash and commodity assistance allow Ziter to offer lunches to students at a low cost of 75 cents.

"Commodities help us hold costs down,' Ziter says, offering an example from a lunch recently served from the pasta bar. "The pasta, ground beef-and-tomato sauce, cheese sticks, salad dressing, and dinner rolls were all or in part donated.'

A number of foods used for the pasta bar are processed under contract, using donated ingredients such as cheese, oil, and flour. Some of the processed items occasionally used to add variety to the pasta bar are tortellini, manicotti, lasagna, ravioli, and macaroni or shells with cheese.

Commodities help with other menus as well. Recent salad bar selections included port salad from donated canned meat, macaroni salad, commodity cheese and peanuts, and salad dressing made with donated oil.

"We plan our menus to take advantage of the commodities available,' Ziter says. "The government helps us use less familiar items by supplying recipes and information on the number of servings in a package or carton. We ordered donated figs for the first time recently, and the accompanying recipe for a fig bar cookie was well accepted.

"By saving in one area, we can absorb higher costs in another. For instance, we can buy more expensive items such as fruits and vegetables in season and even occasionally include a luxury item, such as strawberry shortcake, which the senior class asked for recently.'

Students encouraged to become involved

Ziter enjoys involving the students in decisions about food. "It's good public relations,' she says.

"Each year, senior class officers plan a week's menu. Usually, they choose favorite items from those we have been serving, although they also suggest new things. If we know ahead of time, we can budget for a few more expensive items.