The dining hall is shared by the entire school population for breakfast, lunch, anddinner. The school population has noticed the changes and received them positively. For LFA students their lunch period is a time to socialize, have fun, and enjoy food. 

While the menu at the dining hall is consistently good, it can get repetitive. The dining hall menu has been cycled through for at least the past eight years. However in recent months the community has seen some changes to the dining hall menu. Due to the fact that the menu for the dining hall has to be planned out in advance it restricts the changes that can be made to the menu and can cause the menu to be repetitive. In the recent months however new dishes that the school population has never had the pleasure of enjoying have begun to pop up on the menu.

Simone Cathey, a three year junior said “I really like trying the new dishes in the dining hall because it’s just something different and I like how interesting the dishes have been recently.” 

Students and teachers alike have recently found themselves increasingly excited for the week’s meal offerings when  checking the menu sent out via email each Sunday. Then Menu for the week lists breakfast lunch and dinner for the week and allows students to know what they’ll be having. 

Senior Shaliya Heard commented that she, “… really enjoyed the lemon butter tilapia and it was delicious and was a nice subtle change from what we’d normally have for dinner and the garnish was a really nice touch that made me excited to eat it” 

It is easy to see how well received the changes have been by the long lines during lunch periods. The food has been the cause of delight on students faces, and joyful conversation about the delicious new menu items. 

Angelica Garcia who plans the meals at lfa and works on budgeting within the dining hall said, “We decide the menu based on the history of what we’ve served before, how well received the food has been and most importantly what the school population likes.” 

The process to edit the menu begins with a small sample of a dish and depending on the community’s reaction. Popular dishes are added to the menu, while those deemed unpopular never make it to the menu.  The popularity of the dish is gauged by the amount of food left after the dining hall and how much of it is left on the plates. 

Attempts to gauge the reaction of the LFA community towards different types of food through samples of different dishes during lunch and dinner . The small samples and variety of new dishes put out during lunch and dinner have acted as “test trials” to determine what changes should be permanently implemented and which ones should pop up only periodically.

When asked about  the reason behind the new changes to the menu Garcia remarked that, “I believe when you try new foods it can take you to a new place and it’s just a better experience overall to have a variety of food” 

 The staff is really excited to bring joy to the community through new  dishes. Please enjoy the new dishes that appear in the dining hall and enjoy your lunch periods.