It is a stereotype in every US movie and TV show that high school cafeteria food is unhealthy food that no one would dare eat. In some schools, it is true that the food is very bad. GCDS however, is known for its delicious and varied lunches that make lunch one of the most enjoyable parts of the day.

The GCDS lunches have always had amazing food that leave the students and staff wondering what goes into the creation of such works of perfection. Dr. Stein is head of the Cafeteria at the GCDS High School. While many people go into the cafeteria and eat the food, there are not many who stop to think of the entire process that results in food ending up on every student’s plate. Dr. Stein’s goal is to do more than cook food for GCDS students. He wants to provide everyone with an experience, and taste for different cultures through the food that is served at school. “My goal is that the food we serve is the best school food in the nation.  I also want people to experience other cultures, themes, or time periods.  Whether it is food that was popular in restaurants during the 1960’s, a school cafeteria from the 1980’s, or food from Oaxaca or Vietnam, without leaving CT we can experience these other ‘cultures’”. (Gregory stein) Food is an integral part of society and the dining hall has a goal of making GCDS Lunch an experience. These goals make the GCDS lunch such a popular part of the day. The tasting of new foods and the experience it provides, in the opinion of many, is an essential part of education. 

Many may be wondering how the dining hall staff is able to pull off such an amazing lunch every day. “We start cooking at 6:30 every morning and our goal is to have everything ready by 11am, in order to sit down for a family meal. We will eat for a bit, then get ready for service at 11:30. Sometimes additional prep work is needed after lunch, such as bringing chicken, but often we simply clean and organize after lunch service”. Dr.Stein usually makes 10 to 20 percent more food than he anticipates, and the dining hall tries to incorporate any leftovers into different foods such as salads, pizza, or even sandwiches. The quality of the food at GCDS is certainly a priority and the amount of work they put into the delicious food they make is very evident. Not only is good food a priority, but healthy food is also essential. The power a hardy and healthy lunch has to carry a student through the rest of their day and into sports is unappreciated at times. Athletes and Students need food to power their bodies and their brains to be able to perform at a high level, and there is no way for any student to achieve these goals with bad food and for that reason, Dr.Gregory and the dining hall staff make sure they serve food of the highest quality. “Schools that go from providing “traditional” nutrientless food to then providing healthy, tasty, nutritious foods see a decrease of disciplinary issues of 80%.  People neglect to realize that brains need a variety of nutrients and pizza, pasta and burgers are not going to give a young person the things they actually need.  Our menus are very vegetable and spice forward.  My goal is that we incorporate as many fruits and vegetables as we can. While we can’t make students eat what is healthy for them, we can make them as delicious as possible.” The lunchroom quite literally fuels our students and Dr.Stein sees good food filled with nutrition as the key component in success in the classroom and on the field. The pandemic has certainly changed the way lunches function at the school. Three to a table and the new lunch rotations make it hard to appreciate the best part about a meal, which is sharing it with other people. There’s something about food that enables people to sit down, have a conversation, talk about the flavors, and look away from the screen for just a few minutes in their life and have a real conversation. That is certainly something that I miss and while I do still converse at lunch, it is not the same as before. Dr.Stein feels the same as he misses seeing how the dining hall’s delicious food impacts our GCDS community in a positive way. While right now his options are more limited than before, he has big plans for the future. The introduction of a new kitchen and hopefully a solution to covid-19 will allow for him to achieve his goals and show the students of GCDS the true magic in food.  “When we open our new kitchen, I want to be able to provide even more options than we have this past year.  Certain meals that are loved, like Burger or Taco day, can come back and people can customize their food the way they desire.  Bringing the hot sauce bar will be great.  We will cook similar menus but add daily soups, desserts, made from scratch fresh pizzas (we currently use premade pizza shells, next year we will make dough, age the dough, then make pizza in a giant pizza oven).  But the biggest thing is that food should be eaten communally.  Living in France, I saw that everyone works, in order to provide food for their families.  Meals are not eaten alone in cars, but rather among friends and family.  I want students to be able to eat amongst friends (not just 3 people per table), and talk about the new flavors they are encountering and share things with their colleagues.” The tremendous effort our dining hall shows every day makes GCDS lunch what every meal with people is supposed to feel like. Even with Covid-19, the school is still serving 1,200 meals per week per day and it is completing its goal of getting students fed, and trying to provide as much of an experience with food as possible. There are far more goals they want to reach and plan on reaching those goals in the near future.