With online school going on, the Menlo cafeteria is no longer filled with students hustling in line to get one of their favorite lunches: chicken tenders and mashed potatoes. Now, only teachers and other staff members are on campus and eating lunch at school.

“As you might guess, we’re serving [only] 150 lunches a day, so the Flik staff is smaller. But it will be proportional to the amount of people that are on campus to feed,” Upper School Dean of Students Tony Lapolla said. Prior to online school, Menlo served approximately 1,000 lunches on all school days.

Although the Flik staff is smaller, the Flik employees at Menlo were all paid to the end of the last school year. This year Flik is managing the staffing to fit Menlo’s needs. “Flik is part of a much larger organization and so their employees have opportunities at facilities other than Menlo. For example, they serve health care facilities,” Lapolla said.

Every faculty member on campus is offered lunch, provided through an online program called Nutrislice. There are five meal choices, which change weekly, that they can choose from. The dining format abides by San Mateo County COVID-19 recommendations. “All of them conform to the health orders and are pre-packaged,” Lapolla said. Only foods that are easy to pre-package, such as sandwiches and salads, are being served. 

“We are looking at a balance of taste and nutrition. We’re also trying to accommodate as many food allergies or dietary restrictions as we can, although we don’t have as many options, so it’s harder to do that,” Lapolla said.

The school is not providing any drinks because they would also have to be pre-packaged, which would require plastic in bulk, resulting in environmental harm.

Teachers are allowed to eat in their classrooms or offices by themselves. The school has also set up tables outside on the quads that are six feet apart, similar to how restaurants are spacing their tables. Only two teachers are allowed per table, at a six-foot distance.

Students, if allowed back on campus, would also order lunch through a Nutrislice account. The menus would be similar to what the teachers have now. “We are still tinkering with the menus,” Lapolla said.

“Deliveries would probably be based on the class you have before lunch, and they would be delivered to that classroom, or someone will come and pick up the lunches for that group,” Lapolla said.

Outside seating arrangements for students are still being thought through as the school only has a certain amount of outdoor space. 

Like with any new system, the school had some obstacles to work through. For example, people initially couldn’t figure out how to cancel an order if they couldn’t come to pick it up. “We had some problems in the first couple days, but we’re doing pretty well right now,” Lapolla said.