CHULA VISTA –
Otay Ranch High School in Chula Vista unveiled a food court this week that looks more like one at a mall than a secondary school.
The new cafeteria offers smoothies, espressos and wraps, and has HD televisions and student cashiers.
The renovations are part of a pilot program to introduce brand-name restaurants, including Sandella's Flatbread Café, Dr. Smoothie Ph.D., The Dean of Greens, The Pizza Master and Professor Java & Co.
Even though the cafeteria has the look and feel of a mall food court, the price for any entree is just $2.25 – the same as food in the old cafeteria.
The school also has done away with lunch cards, so students with federally subsidized meals don't stand out from those who pay for lunch themselves.
It's all designed to get more students to buy lunch, increasing revenue for the Sweetwater Union High School District at a time when overall school budgets are decreasing.
All profits from the new cafeteria go to the district, because four of the five “branded” options were created by Nancy Stewart, Sweetwater's director of food service.
Sandella's Flatbread Café, based in Connecticut, is the only independent franchise. Sweetwater chose it because Sandella's has no upfront costs or royalty fees, said Marc Hughston, the company's director of franchise development.
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High school lunch progam
What: Sweetwater Union High School District introduces brand-name healthy foods to its cafeterias in a pilot program.
Where: Otay Ranch High School, 1250 Olympic Parkway, Chula Vista.
Cost: Lunch is $2.25 per day
Lunch options: Sandella's Flatbread Café, Dr. Smoothie Ph.D., The Dean of Greens, The Pizza Master and Professor Java & Co.
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“(Franchises) want a franchisee to develop four or five restaurants at 25 grand a pop, and a school district is just not going to do that,” Hughston said.
The San Diego Unified School District sells Domino's Pizza and has sold other fast food in the past, such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Subway, with limited success. Most brands were removed when state and federal nutrition rules became stricter. Domino's now makes a special pizza for students that meets the state's nutrition guidelines.
Sandella's offers wraps and quesadillas, and its slogan is, “Eat right, right away.” The company doesn't profit from Otay Ranch High's initial sales. It asks only that the kitchen use its brand name, follow its recipes and buy bread from the company.
Otay Ranch High's cafeteria will also save on labor costs with a new class called Food Court Aide, where students work the cash registers and in the kitchen, gaining school credit and learning skills to get a job.
“It's hard to get kids to want to be involved in the school cafeteria,” Stewart said. “But if we make it look like this, fun and positive, then they want to be part of it. It keeps labor costs down, and it provides a really meaningful experience for students.”
Otay Ranch High retained its 11 cafeteria staffers, who now work with the students.
The upscale cafeteria concept has been Stewart's brainchild ever since she was hired by the Sweetwater district two years ago.
“This is a health push. I think it's a reflection of what they're exposed to in malls all the time,” said Jose Brosz, Otay Ranch High's principal. “We're trying to get them to buy into what they're already doing. I think they're going to love it.”
Otay Ranch High's 2,800 students got their first look at the new cafeteria Monday, which was the first day of the new semester for the year-round school.
“We didn't even know they were going to change it,” said student Myriam Jimenez, 17.
“I thought the smoothies were fresh and kind of different,” she said. “The quesadillas were pretty good, too, and that's a hard thing to make. It looks like it's almost from a restaurant or something.”
Stewart said there are plans to build new cafeterias in every school in the Sweetwater district. The concept fits newer kitchens best but is adaptable.
“If they have an old cafeteria, we might link carts in a semicircle or have kiosks around the school,” Stewart said.
Otay Ranch High's upgrade was completed in the month between the end of the spring semester June 12 and the beginning of the fall semester Monday.
Redesign costs are minimal compared with the increased revenue upscale cafeterias will generate in the long term, Stewart said.
“It's like redecorating your house,” Stewart said. “We didn't build the house from the ground up. There's not a lot of new equipment. We did this pretty much on a shoestring.”
Staff writer Maureen Magee contributed to this report.
David Berlin is a Union-Tribune news assistant.
