{"id":8184,"date":"2023-10-08T17:32:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T17:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=8184"},"modified":"2024-08-18T19:49:19","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T19:49:19","slug":"feelings-food-and-fieldstons-intersection-of-the-two-the-cafeteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2023\/10\/feelings-food-and-fieldstons-intersection-of-the-two-the-cafeteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Feelings, Food and Fieldston’s Intersection of the Two: The Cafeteria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The hour has come. After a morning and early afternoon spent indulging in rich curricula and pondering the great questions of the world,  it\u2019s time that we, as Fieldston students, direct our attention away from the classroom and down the narrow passageway that bridges the Commons and the ultimate destination: the cafeteria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a many-hued salad bar, a pasta station and the entre\u00e9s of the day at the ready, the choices seem endless. So why does a toasted bagel with a generous serving of butter or cream cheese seem to be the common alternative to a nutritious lunch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is the bagel is an easy choice, and so is pasta. Opting to stick within the confines of what appears \u201csafe\u201d or \u201ccomfortable\u201d in the cafeteria can limit students\u2019 perspectives on the space. Prone to mindless complaints and off-hand comments, Fieldston\u2019s cafeteria often gets a bad rep when pit against the sprawling culinary scene interspersed through the Riverdale blocks surrounding our campus. Looking outward, as opposed to embracing the food offered within, can make students negligent of all a quick trip down the 700\u2019s might entail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guilty of far too many trips to Riverdeli or Sal\u2019s, I set out to learn more about the cafeteria and garner a better understanding of the way the community views it.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My exploration began with a look into AVI Foodsystems<\/a>: the food and hospitality provider responsible for the various dishes each day. With a commitment to providing well-balanced, fresh meals, AVI aims to make food just as innovative as any other aspect of a school environment. Offering business, healthcare and leisure services, Fieldston is just one branch of the company\u2019s expansive reach. As Resident AVI Foodsystems Director Amy Van-Tessel stated, \u201cWe locally source all our food to create a scratch-cooked meal for [the community].\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just this past Thursday, AVI hosted a vendor showcase in the Student Commons to display the various individuals that come together to compose the company. A labyrinth of pumpkin spice coffee, breads and fall treats, students expressed a desire for the day-to-day menu to mirror that of the showcase. Form III\u2019s Asher Desai stated, \u201cThe fair with the food should be the standard of lunch at Fieldston\u201d as many peers at surrounding tables nodded in agreement and followed suit with their own personal commentary. \u201cI think people are sleeping on [the cafeteria]; it\u2019s underrated,\u201d said Form III student Mia Seshadri as Kyler Calderon (Form III) pleaded, \u201cMore chicken, please.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of a sample size of 25 community members, Friday\u2019s lunch received an average 6.84\/10 score with responses ranging from 3 to 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, there are always ways to take initiative and share thoughts about Fieldston\u2019s dining services. The Food Committee composed of Executive Chef Timothy Webb, the AVI Foodsystems director, campus officials, parents and educators meets 2-4 times a year to process feedback and review upcoming menus. Upper School Spanish teacher Charo Beltran is a member of this board and shared that student feedback is always welcome and in fact informs the way the menu takes shape. \u201cThere\u2019s a little bulletin board where you could leave a note because they need to hear feedback from everybody. They take the feedback very seriously and we have been making improvements based on feedback only.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beltran also shared that the cafeteria has made significant progress in becoming an inclusive place for community members with varying dietary needs and restrictions. \u201cIn my case, if you ask me why I\u2019m [on the committee], it\u2019s because I\u2019m vegan. I think it\u2019s an important presence for people who have different dietary restrictions to be on this committee just to make sure everyone is included. When I started [at Fieldston], I remember there was no vegan cheese and no vegan options. There were some vegetarian options, but after having conversations, there were more options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sense of choice and options that Beltran speaks of is what is so often disregarded when the cafeteria comes to mind. The rotating entre\u00e9s include multiple soups (most recently \u201cCheeseburger\u201d soup- a fan favorite of sorts), comprehensive salad and deli stations and pasta alternatives. These exist to provide the most all-encompassing cafeteria experience imaginable. Looking to the future however, the hope is that as well as continuing to be inclusive of the food needs of the Fieldston community, meals can further reflect the various identities of the community members that consume them with more diverse entre\u00e9 options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, while the common tendency to critique food appears a force of habit, I advise readers to keep an open mind before discounting the cafeteria altogether. After all, in the words of Noah Glassman \u201823, Fieldston\u2019s cafeteria food is \u201c[freaking] gas.\u201d*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*gas- a term used to describe something that is superbly awesome or overarchingly great<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hour has come. After a morning and early afternoon spent indulging in rich curricula and pondering the great questions of the world,  it\u2019s time that we, as Fieldston students, direct our attention away from the classroom and down the narrow passageway that bridges the Commons and the ultimate destination: the cafeteria.  With a many-hued salad bar, a pasta station and the entre\u00e9s of the day at the ready, the choices seem endless. So why<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":8185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[347,436,318],"tags":[420,135,581],"coauthors":[494],"class_list":["post-8184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-food","category-news","tag-community","tag-fieldston","tag-food"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screen-Shot-2023-10-08-at-1.30.01-PM-e1696786231419.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184","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\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8184"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9999,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184\/revisions\/9999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8184"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}