After over two years of the Fieldston community missing its dining hall, on the first Monday in February an extraordinary event occurred: the cafeteria fully reopened. And although this may seem insignificant to many, this event has not only improved the quality and variety of the cafeteria food, but also completely shifted the social scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us can remember those clich\u00e9 high school movies in which the new kid walks into the dining hall, with a tray of somewhat inedible-looking food in hand, looking for a place to sit and people to eat with. They scan the entire room, and when they find no inviting table, they scurry to the bathroom to eat alone, hunched over their food in a stall. No one wants to be that kid — but during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a reality for many Fieldston students because there was not a universal place to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dining experience was different in that students could not just get their food and sit at a table. They had to get their food and then find a place to eat and people to eat with. While this does seem like a somewhat easy task for some, it may be daunting for others. Many new students did not have preexisting friends to whom they could text \u201cwhere r u?\u201d Additionally, many students did not want to waste their precious lunchtime trekking across the entire campus \u2013 from the auditorium to the commons to the band rooms \u2013 just looking for a crowd of people to sit with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that the dining hall is back in business, Greta Glanz (IV) stated, \u201cit\u2019s so nice because you can find people, you don\u2019t have to hunt around so much.\u201d Many students took a big sigh of relief after receiving the exciting email that the cafeteria seating was going to reopen. Julianne Resnick (IV) felt similarly. \u201cI think it\u2019s really nice for all the students to interact and be around each other.\u201d She then went on to say, \u201cnow that everyone\u2019s together I think we feel more like a grade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone is also happy about the salad bar and sandwich of the day making a comeback (fun fact: every single sandwich served in the cafeteria is actually based off of a sandwich at Riverdeli). The most positive feedback has been attributed to the school breakfast. Diana Bienstock (Form IV) says, \u201cthe breakfast is really boujee, it has an omelet bar, yummy cr\u00eapes, as well as delicious muffins.\u201d Glanz agreed, saying \u201cI like how you can get breakfast and sit in the morning, it\u2019s so relaxing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of students choosing to go off campus during the school day has seen a steep decrease ever since the cafeteria reopened. Resnick pointed out that \u201cit\u2019s easier to grab food right here.\u201d She said, \u201cI no longer feel the need to go to Riverdeli or to Rolen Bagels. I don\u2019t even go off anymore.\u201d Of course some students still choose to leave campus, but instead of enjoying their food off school grounds, many are bringing their food to the dining hall to enjoy their meals in this returning Fieldston environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the system does have its faults. Ella Topkins (Form IV) thinks that \u201cit\u2019s so disorganized\u201d with regards to, \u201cthe backpack situation.\u201d And Beinstock wishes \u201cthat the lunch could be as good as the breakfast.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Resnick, like many other students, is excited because \u201cit feels like life is finally going back to normal.\u201d To similar ends, Bienstock has loved \u201cseeing different people and interacting with them more\u201d and Glanz is just so appreciative \u201cto not have to hunch over food anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for my opinion, I have never looked forward to lunch at Fieldston as much as I do now. The quality and variety of the food now are simply astonishing (we might even have sushi this Spring\u2026). And I am also reassured that finding a table to sit at with my friends will be no stress at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Bienstock enthusiastically declared, \u201cGo cafeteria staff!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After over two years of the Fieldston community missing its dining hall, on the first Monday in February an extraordinary event occurred: the cafeteria fully reopened. And although this may seem insignificant to many, this event has not only improved the quality and variety of the cafeteria food, but also completely shifted the social scene. Many of us can remember those clich\u00e9 high school movies in which the new kid walks into the dining hall,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":6319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,318],"tags":[],"coauthors":[398],"class_list":["post-6318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Screen-Shot-2022-02-26-at-7.02.07-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/278"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6320,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6318\/revisions\/6320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6318"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}