Two lunch lines, no pin codes, and two whole years without soup. The Lick-Wilmerding High School Ann-Maisel Cafe, lovingly nicknamed the Caf, has undergone numerous changes since COVID hit in March 2020. Behind the scenes, the LWHS Caf team and administration have been working nonstop to continue providing delicious lunches to our community.
Making meals for roughly 700 students and staff each day is a massive undertaking unlike cooking in any restaurant or home setting, according to Kathleen Fazio, LWHS Director of Food Services. “I buy 550 [bread] rolls a day,” said Fazio, highlighting the sheer size of the LWHS community.
Faizo is responsible for crafting every LWHS meal and putting together ingredients and recipes for each day’s menu. “I do it on the fly every month… You have so many balls in the air,” says Fazio, who described her process of ensuring variety in the meals.
Chicken is one of the more frequently utilized meats in the LWHS kitchen, however, the staff is working to add more variation and meatless options. “Personally, I get sick of chicken,” said Fazio. She tries not to serve chicken more than twice a week. Additionally, Fazio has been trying to incorporate more vegetarian meals, such as the fan-favorite enchilada casserole, to cut down on meat consumption. Another meatless recipe is the Veggie Thai Green Curry. “On Veggie Thai Green Curry day, I think we cut about 600 pounds of vegetables,” she said. “We try to do the best and most interesting food we can on a huge, huge scale.”
But where do these 600 pounds of vegetables and other huge-scale ingredients come from? The answer is a lot of places, but primarily local food servicing companies. “I really try to stay local on vendors,” said Fazio. According to Jeanette Moore, LWHS Chief Financial and Operations Officer (CFOO), the three primary distributors for the Caf are Panorama Bakery, Corfini Meats and Greenleaf Produce. Panorama Bakery, LWHS’ bread supplier, is a local wholesale bakery located in San Francisco. Corfini Meats is based in South San Francisco and Greenleaf Produce is just slightly further away in Brisbane, CA.
Purchasing from these companies supports local businesses, and also creates a system where the Caf team has personal and direct contact with distributors, which Fazio explained is very helpful. “I’ve worked with other companies before like Sysco and US Foods — these big [companies], what I call the Walmart of food service… But they’re so big that they can’t help you,” she said. Despite prices for these local vendors increasing due to inflation, LWHS will continue to purchase these high quality ingredients, according to Moore.
To cook for the LWHS community, around three members of the food team arrive at or before six in the morning to begin prepping that day’s lunch. Some of the preparation is done days before. “We have to prep ahead…definitely start looking even two days down the road depending on how much product we have to cut,” said Fazio. Preparation continues until the start of lunch, and every minute counts. According to Fazio, “It’s actually been kind of helpful that lunch is a little later this year. It’s 20 minutes later [this year], and that 20 minutes has been a gift.”
Despite all the work that goes into preparing our meals every day, many students remain relatively uninformed on the LWHS cafeteria system. However, multiple students express love for the food and variety of flavors. “I LOVE the Mayan Chicken,” said Jasmine Leshnick ’23. Another student, Kailee Mahlstedt-Kamekona ’23, reminisced on the pre-COVID retail snacks. “During freshman year, snacks were very helpful since sometimes I wouldn’t have time to get breakfast, and the Caf always provided healthy options,” Mahlstedt-Kamekona said.
Retail sales were popular among students pre-pandemic, but the touch-based system was discontinued when COVID was theorized to be primarily spread via touch. Recently, the cafeteria team has begun the transition back to retail sales. “I’m starting to order in the products,” said Fazio. This new snack system would look slightly different, as the pre-COVID method of pin codes would be replaced with scannable student ID’s, and snacks would only be available at select times. If all goes according to plan, the LWHS cafeteria should be selling retail by Halloween, if not sooner.
Despite living through a pandemic, the LWHS Cafeteria has continued their commitment to providing fresh and interesting lunches. Behind the scenes, food service employees work tirelessly to provide students with consistent meals featuring a variety of flavors. “They work incredibly hard to pull off a herculean task of feeding over 650 people daily,” said Moore.
