Students will soon see a change in the Dining Hall, as the school announced a transition to a new food provider. After 12 years of service, Creative Dining Services will replace FLIK Independent School Dining. The transition will take place over the summer break, aiming to improve meal quality, accommodate certain food restrictions and offer a wider variety of options for students and faculty. The new food provider must be able to offer travel meal options for traveling athletes and artists, and maintain an ongoing commitment to uphold the requirements and needs of the students and faculty while also considering their suggestions and feedback. Chief financial officer Natalie Ferguson shares on why the switch was made to Creative Dining Services.
“Mainly we are just looking for something new and different for the kids, we want more of a variety of food because now, there is only one choice and if you do not like that choice then you will have a hard time finding something to eat,” Ferguson said. “So more variety, better food, more menus that kids will recognize and be excited about lunch.”
For both day and boarding students, there is no way to avoid eating in the lunch room unless no eating at all. If the food is terrible, certain students will skip lunch completely, and for athletes that can leave them depleted and without energy.
“I want more options when it comes to lunch, like more sandwiches or chicken.” Junior Henry Ledbetter said.
Ferguson shares on what some new options Creative Dining Services will offer for next year.
“The main things we are going to offer everyday are a homestyle option, with meat, vegetable entrees, they will also have a pizza and pasta everyday, so the students and faculty will always have the option of a plain pasta as well as a composed pasta like spaghetti and meatballs and pizza,” Ferguson said. “They will also have a creation station, which is a make your own bar type food, like a nacho bar or a taco bar or a hot potato bar with different toppings.”
For the boarding students who eat almost every meal at school, the transition is very significant. Ferguson shares what will be different and what will be offered to the boarding students who live at school.
“At night for our boarding students there will be a grill, so in addition to all those things they will have the option for hamburgers or hotdogs and chicken sandwiches and things like that,” Ferguson said. “They will offer a better variety for our boarding students for breakfast and dinner while also providing the necessary variety of food for the (Darlington) community.