After a year of Chartwells as Newton Public Schools’ food services provider, students and parents are assessing whether the company has provided the diverse, high-quality lunches it promised.
Over the past year, Chartwells has hosted interactive events at almost every Newton Public School with the goals of promoting healthy eating and encouraging students to try new foods.
Regarding the selection of food options that Chartwells offers, Student Engagement and Sustainability Manager Nicole Brooks said,“We switch off between the Veg Out and the Sono stations. For Veg Out, we’ll have different vegetarian meals like tomato soup, grilled cheese, and tofu. Sono is the Hispanic or Latin-inspired station which is the nacho bar.”
Still, students at North find the selection of plant-based meals to fall short of expectations.
Junior Alicia Qiu said, “for a whole week straight, there would only be cold salads or nachos.” During a recent lunch period, most vegetarian options are served cold with the exception of grilled cheese. For example, tofu is offered as a topping at the salad bar rather than as a main meal.
Parents have raised similar concerns, especially about the nutritional value of the lunches. Priyanka Sejpal, a parent at Underwood Elementary school, said, “We would love for kids to eat school lunch, especially since it is free, but we do not want them eating so many processed foods. My kid is vegetarian and it is disappointing to see her daily option being a processed carbohydrate.”
Sejpal added that she wishes vegetables were a larger part of the main course instead of “seeming like an afterthought.”
While the day-to-day menu has drawn criticism, the special events that Chartwells hosted have been popular among students. The two events that have been held at North last year were Cultural Eats and Student Choice. The top rated dish was the kung pao chicken stir fry which was an option at the event held last February. In addition, students also enjoyed the vegetarian options that they sampled. “I loved the Curry Masala Chickpea dish and I wish it was part of the regular menu instead of just at a one-time event,” said Qiu.
According to Chartwells, a challenge it faces is balancing students’ various preferences and diets. “We know that kids love pizza and if we took that away a lot of people would be upset,” said Brooks.
A key priority for Chartwells is improving communication and creating more accessible ways to receive feedback from students and parents. “I feel like a lot of parents aren’t aware of the events being held at lunch, said Brooks, “and we also want to get more student feedback, especially in deciding what to add to the menus.”
To expand the vegetarian and healthy options available, Sejpal says, “I think it would be good to add unprocessed plant-based proteins (beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu) and use more whole grains.”
Qiu is a chair of the student green team. They have been working with Plant Based Treaty and Chartwells to launch a vegetarian student choice event. According to Qiu, the goal is to get students to realize that eating plant based foods doesn’t always mean salads and doesn’t have to be boring.
