In the cafeteria, on December 9 and 11, at Berlin High School, students got to try something new for a possible change in the lunch menu for next school year.
“I’m sad because I won’t be here next year to eat these options, but happy for the students who get to experience them,” senior Evion Larson said.
The options on Tuesday, Dec. 9, for the lunch sampling were mozzarella sticks, pizza pasta, garlic knots, and strawberry overnight oats. Students were very excited about the options.
“I think this helps students know how the possible samples taste so that they’re not surprised next year,” junior Caleb Frischmann said.
Even though there was a lack of variety in some places, Frischmann also said he enjoys getting to see samples that are similar to each other, helping to see what pairs nicely with the other options.
“The overnight oats were probably my least favorite. They’re okay, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s as good as the others, even though it’s different,” Frischmann said.
Larson, on the other hand, said that the diversity of the options was beneficial for both the sampling and the students.
“I think the options were pretty good. I believe they have a wide variety of options with different taste palettes, but overall, they were pretty good,” Larson said.
The options given during the lunch tasting also seemed to appeal to even the pickiest of eaters, helping the food service team get a wider variety of likes and dislikes on the menu items.
“I really enjoyed how they incorporated a lot of different flavors and a lot of different textures to help people with sensory issues and get students to try more food groups,” Larson said.
Larson also said the garlic knots, one of Frischmann’s favorite samples, were not the best on the list.
“So far, I have only tried the pizza pasta, the mozzarella sticks, and the garlic knots, but the pizza pasta is my favorite. The garlic knots are my least favorite so far because they don’t taste good and have a weird texture,” Larson said.
These differences between Larson and Frischmann are exactly what the lunch management team was looking for and hoping would happen during the lunch sampling.
“We do these lunch samplings to get student feedback on new items we are considering for our menus,” Director of Food Service Cassandra Goldamer said.
Goldamer and the food service team use little cards of paper, with the food option and “like” or “dislike” boxes.
“We choose what will go on the menu next year based on what students like, what best fits with the required nutritional guidelines, and cost per serving,” Goldamer said.
Even though students like the options the food service team offered this year, some others would like to see more of their comfort foods, as well.
“If there was one item that they don’t serve now that I would want to see in future years, I would have to say burritos,” Larson said.
Goldamer, while wanting to see the students happy, still has a very strict code of conduct she has to follow.
“We have nutritional guidelines we have to follow per age group in calories, sodium, sugars, and different meal component groups. Everything we sample must be an approved item and fall within these guidelines,” Goldamer said.
Goldamer also explained how the food service team picks out the samples that the students get to try.
“We get ideas from vendors of items that other schools are trying, and some are samples that some vendors are offering to promote and get feedback from,” Goldamer said.
With this knowledge of what could go on the menu for the following years, the food service team may be ready with some of these options as soon as next semester.
“We may see some options once or twice next semester, but typically it wouldn’t happen until the following school year as we select our allotted spending a year prior,” Goldamer said.
