Chaminade’s lunch program has remained steadfast in its operations for the past few years. Although some may claim that food quality has improved or degraded over the recent years, it is safe to say that no radical change has occurred.
However, this year, Chaminade’s lunch operations have been changed – not dramatically – but also not insignificantly either. New adjustments can be seen through Chaminade’s new lunch providing service: “Creative Dining Services.”
I interviewed Mr. Friganza, Chaminade’s Food Service Director, to understand the details surrounding the new lunch program and how students will be impacted by the swap.
To begin, I asked Mr. Friganza for some background on the lunch changes:
“What exactly has changed about the lunch services at Chaminade?”
“The biggest change to the food service is the parent company which is now called Creative Dining services. Creative Dining Services runs 71 different food service providers from K-12 cafeterias, colleges, businesses, and industry kitchens with corporate offices based in Michigan.”
According to Mr. Friganza, the switch “was made due to the sale of the company by Pedestal Foods.”
Additionally, probably to some relief, Mr. Friganza informed me that “the new provider will impact the lunch operations at Chaminade very minimally, as you will only see some new signage, some new menu items, new employee uniforms, as well as some more focus on food allergies and allergens in the food. We have also changed our major food vendor from US Foods to GFS Food Service, so we look forward to having more variety of food options from this new vendor.”
One of my more important questions, at least in the eyes of a student, was if students should expect lunch to be different or remain the same.
Mr. Friganza said that “students should expect to receive the same focus on good food with as much, and more, variety that we have had in the past.”
Lastly, I asked Mr. Friganza: “What details about the new lunch operations should students be aware of?”
To which he responded: “We will be bringing some new faces to the cafe, as well as your existing favorites. We are in the process of hiring new cooks, cashiers, and utility workers.”
Although nobody was visibly frustrated by the new lunch operations, there was definitely some confusion among the Chaminade students. I hope that this interview has cleared the air about the reasons and details behind the new adjustments in Cafe Moe.
Additionally, I also wanted to get first-hand evidence on the status of the new lunch service. So, I took a sample size of ten highschool students and asked them about their experiences with lunch this year under three criteria: quality, service, and taste – to see if they think the lunch operations have improved or degraded.
Out of ten replies, eight students said that lunch was worse, one said it was better, and one said it is the same as last year. The general consensus was that the “service is the same as years prior, but quality of food has decreased.” Now, it is hard to understand if that is actually true, a large placebo effect, or perhaps just an unrepresentative sample group considering ten students is around 1% of the total enrollment. Despite this, the survey still holds some merit.
Regardless, we can conclude that the changes we have witnessed in Cafe Moe aren’t too significant to the point where we have to be apprehensive about them, but also not so miniscule that we should disregard them. At the end of the day, these adjustments will not cause Cafe Moe to lose its honored status – and Chaminade students should be excited for the future of lunch services.
